Signal arXiv cs.ET — "Speculating the Impacts of Mediated Social Touch Technology" (DIS '26)

Summary

The paper "Speculating the Impacts of Mediated Social Touch Technology" (arXiv:2606.04489) is authored by Ruo-Xuan Wu, Xinyan Yu, Marius Hoggenmueller and Luke Hespanhol of the University of Sydney's Design Lab, along with Tim Moesgen (Aalto University), Naoki Kameyama (Kyushu University), Myung Jin Kim (Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute) and Anusha Withana (University of Sydney). It applies design fiction methodology, a common HCI approach for exploring the societal, ethical and interpersonal implications of emerging technology before wide deployment, rather than empirical study. Mediated social touch technology is defined in the field as enabling physical interaction despite distance by transmitting the haptic cues that constitute social touch through devices, a channel associated with reducing anxiety and loneliness and transmitting emotions such as love and reassurance. The paper is associated with the Designing Interactive Systems Conference (DIS) 2026.