A basic tactile language to support leader-follower dancing

摘要

Work is needed to advance the current understanding of tactile interaction among humans through haptic technologies. We introduce a novel language that has been designed to guide users in leader-follower dances. This language is based on a nine-word vocabulary that corresponds to nine dance steps, following the metaphor of a leader-follower dance. Our work benefits from a haptic coding that is commonly used by couples when dancing, and explores the potential of wearable technology in this scenario. A wearable prototype consisting of four vibrotactile actuators was used to test the idea. Two user studies show a high recognition rate (more than 90%) of the intended tactile vocabulary. This particular work highlights the feasibility of a haptic vocabulary to exchange full, understandable commands between users, the importance of dance as a case study, and the potential of using wearable technology to support haptic communications in scenarios similar to those in the real world, such as partner dancing. Current results show it is viable to successfully guide someone to follow dance through communication using a basic vibrotactile language.