inTouch

2001

Hiroshi Ishii (US) (JP)

Angela Chang
Matthew Malcolm
Victor Su
Rujira Hongladaromp
Scott Brave (US)
Andrew Dahley (US)

Tangible Media Group
Phil Frei

"inTouch" is a project that explores new forms of interpersonal communication through touch. Two users separated by distance can play moving two rollers or more passively feel the other person’s manipulation of the object. Force-feedback technology is employed to explore new forms of interpersonal communication through touch.

"inTouch" uses force-feedback technology to create the illusion that people—separated by distance—are actually interacting with shared physical objects ("Distributed Shared Physical Objects"). Each of two identical "inTouch" devices use three freely rotating rollers.

Force-feedback technology synchronizes each individual roller to the corresponding roller on the distant mechanism; when one "inTouch" roller is moved the corresponding roller on the other "inTouch" also moves. If the movement of one roller is resisted, the corresponding roller also feels resistance. Two distant users can play through touch, moving rollers to feel the other's presence.

"inTouch" demonstrates a unique interface that has no boundary between "input" and "output" (the wooden rollers are force displays as well as input devices). The sense of touch is playing critical role, and information can be sent and received simultaneously through one's hand. Past communication media (such as video telephony) tried to reproduce the voice or the image of the human face as realistically as possible in order to create the illusion of "being there."

"inTouch" takes the opposite approach by making users aware of the other person without explicitly embodying him or her. We think that "inTouch" creates a "ghostly presence." By seeing and feeling an object move in a human fashion on its own, we imagine a ghostly body. The concept of the ghostly presence provides us with a different approach to the conventional notion of telepresence.