Empathic Touch for Mixed Reality Agents

Empathic communication is fundamental to establishing meaningful social relationships. In healthcare, for instance, a clinician’s display of empathy toward patients is widely recognized as essential for forming a strong therapeutic alliance. One important element of empathic interaction is physical touch—for example, greeting a long-lost friend with a hug.

An Empathic Mixed Reality Agent (EMiRA) is an embodied agent in mixed reality, designed to intelligently perceive and respond to users’ affective states. EMiRAs hold promise for providing comfort to individuals under stress and fostering long-term social-emotional bonds with human users.

Previous research on empathic agents has primarily focused on verbal communication and virtual nonverbal cues, such as posture, facial expressions, and proxemics. However, empathic touch—a powerful modality of human connection—has received limited attention in the context of mixed reality agents. Moreover, the impact of empathic touch by EMiRAs on stress relief and user perception remains underexplored.

This project aims to develop an EMiRA capable of expressing empathic touch and to evaluate its effects through a user study. The study will investigate how empathic touch delivered by a virtual agent in mixed reality influences users’ emotional states, perceptions, and behaviors. The outcomes of this project will be documented in a Part IV report and prepared for submission to a peer-reviewed conference.