Developing Interaction Design Knowledge and Materials where Technology Touches the Body

Project Information

Intimate Touch

Grant agreement ID: 101043637

DOI

10.3030/101043637

EC signature date 18 July 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2027

Funded under

• European Research Council (ERC)

Total cost

€ 1 861 899,00

EU contribution

€ 1 861 899,00

Coordinated by

KUNGLIGA TEKNISKA HOEGSKOLAN
Sweden

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Intimate Touch (Developing Interaction Design Knowledge and Materials where Technology Touches the Body)

Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2025-02-28

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Robots will care for, wash, and handle people in care homes, or patients in hospitals. Car seats will touch a driver’s back, bottom and thighs as they drive to draw their attention to road conditions and potential dangers. Technologically augmented t-shirts will touch a person’s stomach to simulate a foetus’ heartbeat and help mediate and share the experience of pregnancy. These are just a few of the ways in which autonomous systems are predicted to touch us in the next 20 – 30 years. While technological advances are beginning to make this vision feasible, we have no clear understanding of how to design this touch in ways which are dignified, safe, or pleasurable. We do not know what touch with technology should feel like, or how we should create these experiences with digital and physical materials. And this is a significant problem. Without this knowledge and skill in how to achieve ‘good’ touch these systems will simply fail, or result in technologies which people do not want use, which are unacceptable and undignified. There are so many questions we need to answer - How should technology touch us? What kinds of touch should technology use? Where on the body should this touch happen? I have constructed the Intimate Touch project to respond to these questions, and more to contribute to these gaps in our knowledge.

Thinking, and working with the concept of Intimate Touch evokes a new perspective on our relationships with technology. In tandem, this project lays the groundwork for a fourth paradigm in Human Computer Interaction (HCI). Our relationship with technology has fundamentally changed. The smart phone goes everywhere with us, even to the bathroom. It is continuously collecting data about us, where we are, how many steps we have taken, perhaps even whether we are menstruating. It is often the first thing we touch in the morning, the last thing we touch at night. It is in some ways our most intimate partner. Yet, there is a lack of research within HCI, interaction design or in fields such as psychology or sociology which has studied this intimate relationship with technology.

I have planned the Intimate Touch project to allow me to take several important and significant leaps forward in response to these concerns. I will empirically examine how intimate relationships with technology are established and maintained. This will result in a multidimensional model which describes and predicts Intimate Technologies as a class of technology; and, I will deploy two exemplars of Intimate Touch in-situ with people throughout long-term studies to study whether technology can deliver touch which transforms us, and so that we can understand the consequences of these kinds of touches.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

Developing a Theoretical Framework on Intimacy with Technology
The final dataset consists of 133 semi-structured interviews with people who have been using Natural Cycles for at least 6 months, and whom when contacted were using Natural Cycles in Birth Control mode. The participants were aged between 20 and 50, with a mean age of 32. While we emphasised in our recruitment messages an interest in speaking to users of Natural Cycles from different gender identities, all participants recruited to this study reported that they were born female and identified as women. In addition, the majority were cohabiting with a partner (59) and considered themselves heterosexual (103). Analysis of this dataset is ongoing.

Developing Data and Materials for Designing Touch from Technology
Understanding how to touch well
We have undertaken a qualitative study with five healthcare experts specialised in different types of touch practice to gain insight in how caring touch can be enacted. We worked with each participant over three sessions: first, a semi-structured interview to better understand their touch practice, second, a 'touch session' where members of the researcher team experienced the 'touch' of the practitioner, and documented the force profile through a bespoke, prototype wearable force sensor. We learnt about the importance of a progression of touch and how this can be developed through dynamic sensitivity and through adapting touch to touch the plural dimensions of the body's textures (bone, skin and muscle). This focus on different ways of touches the different textures of the body is novel and will be inspirational for Task 2b.

Exploring Existing and Cutting Edge Haptics Devices
We have conducted a systematic review of the literature to discover cutting-edge technologies that enable different haptic sensations on the human. The review covered 188 works which were categorised into groups based on various haptic actions and sensations, such as squeezing, poking, pressing, vibrating, hugging, pinching, rubbing, dragging, as well as other interactions including thermo-tactile and electrical stimulations. The review concludes that most current research in haptic actuation devices has focussed on producing functional touches, intending to create specific types of deformation of the human body. As such, this research are largely neglects to explore the sensual experience of the touch during both the design and experimentation processes.

Developing Demonstrators of Intimate Touch
The Pelvic Chair - Over the last two years we have worked extensively to turn the Pelvic Chair into an automated ‘intimate touch’ experience. We have achieved this through the application of a customised pneumatic control system so that the inflation and deflation of each air pocket is programmable. We have conducted a user study with 14 participants who experienced the touches from the Pelvic Chair over one to two sessions. Our analysis shows that the touches initiated by the Pelvic Chair were considered intimate, safe and gentle, yet non-sexual. The Pelvic Chair was neither thought of as human-like nor machine-like.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Natural Cycles dataset (Task 1b) is large, covering a vast diversity of experiences of trust and intimacy in a commercial technology. Critiques of trust research in AI have focused in particular on the lab-based approach of research, and the lack of high-stakes use. In this now collected dataset, I believe that the project team has an excellent foundation for preparing a conceptual framework in relation to trust and intimacy in AI technologies. We are currently preparing an article for ACM ToCHI that will explicate this ‘trust framework’ in AI technologies within personal high-stakes settings. Following this, analysis will turn towards ‘intimacy’ with Natural Cycles, examining immediacy behaviours and its role in ‘closeness’ between the technology and the user.

Interactive Car Seats – This result is unplanned. The vehicle industry still relies heavily on visual and audio cues for interaction with drivers. The result of this lack of innovation can already be felt in the excessive blinking and beeping experienced while driving even a modern car with lane assist, let alone semi-autonomous cars. We have been working towards a solution that uses touch of the drivers’ body as a way of supporting communication and coordination with driver. Conversations with both global car manufacturers have show interest in our approach.