Haptic mediators for remote interpersonal communication

The advent of smart and connected societies has led to increased prevalence of remote communication worldwide. However, these traditionally audio-visual communication environments can often lack the same richness of expressive information and feedback present in face-to-face interactions. Haptic mediators have emerged as a novel solution to bridge this gap across multiple dynamics of interpersonal communication. This chapter reviews the state of the art of this steadily emerging field of research under three primary categories of communication: social touch, nonvisual and visual information. The implications of existing solutions and evaluations are provided along with directions for future development.