Emoband: Investigating the Affective Perception towards On-wrist Stroking and Squeezing Feedback mediated by Different Textile Materials

This paper investigates how different textile materials on the wrist bands may mediate the affective experience of two forms of tactile icons, namely stroking and squeezing. To this end, we designed Emoband, a wrist-worn textile-based tactile display that can stroke or squeeze on wearers’ wrists through the moving fabrics. We conducted two studies on the participants’ valence and arousal ratings towards the stroking and squeezing feedback from Emoband, respectively. Results showed that the valence ratings were significantly affected by the stroking or squeezing parameters and the wristband’s material, interactively. The movement-related parameters dominated the arousal rating. Meanwhile, the valence ratings demonstrated different tendencies between the two tactile feedback, with the valence increasing and decreasing along with the strength of stroking and squeezing, respectively. Besides, the valence ratings of the stroking stimuli demonstrated varied distributions across different materials, indicating the materials’ varying affective expressiveness in the wrist-worn haptic devices.