This thesis discusses commensality as a significant social activity, that helps to maintain and strengthen social bonds. It also examines the sense of touch as a communication channel, and provides an insight to how it can be used to communicate affect. Touch as contextualized medium and its relevance to interaction design is investigated. Based on studies made in psychology, physiology, sociology and communication it aims to find an answer to the question: ”How may we create togetherness -with the help of an interactive device- between loved ones separated by distance during dining, through remote communication?” In order to meet the objectives of the above question this research followed the Research Through Design methodology, with series of workshops and prototyping sessions.

The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which the experience of incest contributed to women's' evaluations of counselors' trustworthiness and attractiveness based on the counselors' use of touch. Counseling facilities, educational centers, and individual therapists who led groups for female adult survivors of incest and non-victimized women, were contacted and asked to participate in a study designed to evaluate counseling techniques for women in counseling. The sample consisted of 130 volunteers over the age of 18 and currently in counseling. Groups of participants evaluated two 4 1/2 minute Simulated counseling sessions on video tapes. Nearly half of the sample viewed the tapes with a male counselor and a female client, and the others viewed tapes with a female counselor and a female client. On one of each set of counseling vignettes, the counselor supportively touched the client four times. All other variables were held constant. Participants evaluated the counselors on attributes of attractiveness and trustworthiness associated with the use of counselor touch. The results of the multiple regression analysis indicated that two variables significantly influenced how participants evaluated counselor attributes associated with the use of counselor touch, namely counselor attributes when the counselor did not use touch and counselor's gender. Results of independent t-tests indicated that female counselors were rated significantly higher on both counselor attributes in both counseling vignettes. Paired t-tests indicated that female counselors were rated significantly higher on counseling attributes when they used touch versus when they did not use touch. Male counselors were rated significantly higher on the counselor attribute of attractiveness when they used touch versus when they did not use touch. A significant interaction was found between the participant's incest experience and ratings of counselors' attributes when the counselor did not use touch. That is, participant's ratings of counselors' attributes when the counselor used touch and participant's incest experience were combined, they made a Significant contribution to how participants rated counselors on counseling attributes when the counselor used touch. The findings of this study suggest that whether women experience incest or not does not effect their perceptions of counselors who use touch. Furthermore, women preferred counselors who used touch versus those that did not. Implications for further training suggest that counselors be taught appropriate touch techniques to use in counseling with both adult survivors of incest and non-victimized women. / Ed. D.

In the last decade, neuroscience and psychology alike have paid increasing attention to the study of affective touch, which refers to the emotional and motivational facets of tactile sensation. Some aspects of affective touch have been linked to a neurophysiologically specialised system, namely the C tactile (CT) system. While the role of this system for affiliation, social bonding and communication of emotions have been investigated, less is known about the potential role of affective touch in the awareness of the body as our own, i.e. as belonging to our psychological 'self'. This thesis attempted to contribute to the knowledge on affective touch and its relation to body awareness, by exploring the potential role of this modality to the way we perceive and make sense of our body as our own. Specifically, this work aimed to advance the current state of knowledge by investigating: 1) the effect of affective touch on the sense of body ownership, which is a fundamental aspect of body awareness; 2) the relation between interoceptive modalities, originating both internally (i.e. cardiac awareness) and peripherally (i.e. affective touch), and exteroception in body awareness; 3) the effect of intranasal oxytocin on the perception of affective touch and bodily awareness; 4) the perception and social modulation of affective touch in psychiatric patients who show difficulties in body awareness, namely patients with Anorexia Nervosa, and 5) the modulating role of self-other distinction and of self-other relation in the perception of affective touch and body awareness. In a first experiment (N = 52) the rubber hand illusion paradigm was used to investigate the role played by CT-optimal, affective touch in the sense of body ownership. The results showed that slow, pleasant touch enhanced the experience of embodiment in comparison to faster, neutral touch, suggesting that affective touch might uniquely contribute to the sense of body ownership. The following study (N = 75), used a similar methodology to test whether interoceptive sensitivity as measured by a heartbeat counting task would modulate the extent to which affective touch influences the multisensory process taking place during the rubber hand illusion. The results could not confirm a systematic relation between interoceptive sensitivity and the perception of affective touch, nor its influence on body ownership. The next study (N = 41) included a double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomised, cross-over design testing the effect of intranasal oxytocin on the perception of affective touch and body ownership, as measured by means of the rubber hand illusion. There was no evidence supporting the hypothesis that intranasal oxytocin could influence the CT system as tested in this study. The next study (N = 55) applied some of the above methodologies to investigate the perception of CT-optimal touch in patients with anorexia nervosa and its emotional modulation by top-down factors. The results confirmed the hypothesis that people with anorexia nervosa show a reduced perception of affective touch compared to healthy controls, but its perception was not influenced by top-down affective modulation, in the sense that both patients and healthy controls perceived touch as more pleasant when presented concurrently with positive facial expressions compared to neutral and negative faces. Finally, the last two studies (N = 76 and 35 healthy volunteers, respectively) focused on the relationship between affective touch and body awareness in the context of social cognition. These studies used both online and offline social modulation paradigms to investigate the role of self-other distinction and of self-other relation in the perception of affective touch. The results showed that positive top-down social information can enhance the perceived pleasure of tactile stimulation. Taken together, these studies point to the central role of affective touch in body awareness and social cognition. Finally, they also pave the way for future studies examining the role of disruptions of the CT system in the development of neuropsychiatric impairments of body awareness and social cognition.

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Améliorer l'interaction entre un utilisateur et un environnement 3D est un défi de recherche primordial pour le développement positif des technologies 3D interactives dans de nombreux domaines de nos sociétés, comme l'éducation. Dans ce document, je présente des interfaces utilisateur 3D que nous avons développées et qui contribuent à cette quête générale. Le premier chapitre se concentre sur l'interaction 3D pour des terminaux mobiles. En particulier, je présente des techniques dédiées à l'interaction à partir de touches, et à partir de gestes sur les écrans tactiles des terminaux mobiles. Puis, je présente deux prototypes à plusieurs degrés de liberté basés sur l'utilisation de flux vidéos. Dans le deuxième chapitre, je me concentre sur l'interaction 3D avec les écrans tactiles en général (tables, écrans interactifs). Je présente Navidget, un exemple de technique d'interaction dédié au controle de la caméra virtuelle à partir de gestes 2D, et je discute des défis de l'interaction 3D sur des écrans multi-points. Finalement, le troisième chapitre de ce document est dédié aux environnements virtuels immersifs, avec une coloration spéciale vers les interfaces musicales. Je présente les nouvelles directions que nous avons explorées pour améliorer l'interaction entre des musiciens, le public, le son, et les environements 3D interactifs. Je conclue en discutant du futur des interfaces utilisateur 3D.

The first part of the Thesis explores the specifics (developmental and educational) of a visually impaired pupil. The sense of touch is defined as being the major compensatory sense of visually impaired people. It also describes the principles and forms of the effective haptization and proposes suitable activities for the development of the touch perception. Through the basic tactile-graphics procedures, the text gets to its central theme, which is the tactile books (books with textures designed for the visually impaired). These books, as well as the possibilities of their borrowing or purchasing, are presented to a reader. Using the analysis and comparison of the available specialized materials, the Thesis summarizes the methodical procedures used for the creation of the tactile textbooks, which are suitable for the integrated visually impaired children in the lessons of the Czech Language. KEYWORDS: the sense of touch, touch perception, tactile books, visually impaired pupils, tactile graphics

This diploma thesis deals with the Tactual Profile test of tactile perception and is aimed at pupils of younger school age with severe visual impairment. The theoretical part is devoted to topics of visual impairment, tactile perception, other compensatory senses and specifics in the development of visually impaired children in preschool age. The theoretical background of the work is supplemented by current studies from the American environment dealing with the importance of developing children's tactile perception in connection with subsequent Braille teaching. The thesis contains a detailed description of Tactual Profile, including material history and theoretical basis. Then it is followed by the research part, which was processed by the quantitative method. The results obtained by testing were processed into graphs according to individual material categories. The thesis also includes two examination reports as an example of possible evaluation in practice. The aim of this thesis is to determine the level of tactile perception in younger school age children with severe visual impairment by Tactual Profile. Another intention is to create an abbreviated version of this test, which could form a proposal for functional examination of touch in school and counseling practice. This abbreviated version...

The somatosensory system concerns the sense of touch. It is sectioned into various kinds of touch, such as the proprioceptive sense, providing information of sense of self and position of limbs, and the cutaneous sense, informing of the modalities of touching or being touched. The cutaneous sense is further divided into discriminative touch and affective touch. Discriminative touch is an exteroceptive sense of touch that responds to stimuli of pressure and vibration, and affective touch is an interoceptive sense of touch that corresponds to e.g. pleasant and painful stimuli, communicating information to the brain through A-delta and C-fibers. Recent studies investigates affective touch to have emotional affect on the subjective experience of touch, affecting subjective wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the sense of touch and its relevant neural correlates, focusing on affective touch and its role in subjective wellbeing and social relations. A presentation of physiological and neural aspects of touch will be held as well as a description of subjective wellbeing. The conclusion for this thesis is that affective touch appears to activate brain areas of orbitofrontal cortex, frontal polar cortice, prefrontal cortex and insula cortex, which are brain areas processing subjective wellbeing, e.g. evaluating positive and negative effect and processing emotional information and behavior. Examining correlations between affective touch and positive affect, negative affect, oxytocin release, social relations and affiliative behavior shows influence from affective touch on subjective wellbeing. A discussion of the current findings is provided, including directions for future research.

The somatosensory system concerns the sense of touch. It is sectioned into various kinds of touch, such as the proprioceptive sense, providing information of sense of self and position of limbs, and the cutaneous sense, informing of the modalities of touching or being touched. The cutaneous sense is further divided into discriminative touch and affective touch. Discriminative touch is an exteroceptive sense of touch that responds to stimuli of pressure and vibration, and affective touch is an interoceptive sense of touch that corresponds to e.g. pleasant and painful stimuli, communicating information to the brain through A-delta and C-fibers. Recent studies investigates affective touch to have emotional affect on the subjective experience of touch, affecting subjective wellbeing. The aim of this thesis is to examine the sense of touch and its relevant neural correlates, focusing on affective touch and its role in subjective wellbeing and social relations. A presentation of physiological and neural aspects of touch will be held as well as a description of subjective wellbeing. The conclusion for this thesis is that affective touch appears to activate brain areas of orbitofrontal cortex, frontal polar cortice, prefrontal cortex and insula cortex, which are brain areas processing subjective wellbeing, e.g. evaluating positive and negative effect and processing emotional information and behavior. Examining correlations between affective touch and positive affect, negative affect, oxytocin release, social relations and affiliative behavior shows influence from affective touch on subjective wellbeing. A discussion of the current findings is provided, including directions for future research.

This thesis deals with the use of mobile touch technologies in German language teaching. The theoretical part of the work collects basic facts and knowledge about mobile touch devices, which are important as a didactic tool. Furthermore, the work on the theoretical level deals with information on teaching applications and teaching methods in which these touch technologies can be used. The Practical part of the work is devoted to the results of the research survey, namely the questionnaire research survey and the results from a sample lesson. The questionnaire survey revealed that mobile touch technologies are not widely distributed in schools and are not widely used during lessons. This thesis seeks to give readers a comprehensive description of the possibilities of didactic and methodical use of mobile touch devices in the teaching of German language.