Touchless touch with biosignal transfer for online communication

The widespread of audio-visual online communication highlights the importance of enhancing their ability to transmit emotional color and personal experience.  Non-verbal biometric cues and signals were recently recognized to convey such missing emotional context when added to virtual interactions. Motivated by that, we present a haptic system allowing for a biometric signal transfer in a fully touchless and seamless way.  We utilize camera-based heart-rate signal readings and ultrasonic mid-air haptic technology to affect the audience with a temporal tactile pattern representing the speaker's heart rate.  We assess the usability and engagement enhancement of such a system in two user-studies involving one-way communication, i.e., watching a short emotional video.  Our analysis of biometric data and subjective responses hints toward changed values of arousal and valence as well as physiological responses when the haptic feedback was applied in a group of participants.  Finally, we outline a further research agenda to confirm our observations with different emotions and communication scenarios.