Mediated Social Touch

The use of haptic technology to simulate or communicate social touch gestures — such as stroking, squeezing, patting, or hugging — between people who are physically separated. Mediated social touch systems encode touch from one person and reproduce it on a remote partner's body using wearable actuators, enabling tactile communication across distance. Research in this area explores how technology-mediated touch can maintain emotional connection, convey empathy, and reduce feelings of isolation in contexts such as long-distance relationships, hospital isolation, or remote caregiving. For people with mobility impairments or those in institutional settings, mediated social touch offers potential for increasing access to affective physical contact.