Wearable Microblower System for Affective Touch: Airflow-Based Tactile Stroking Stimulation

Interpersonal tactile interaction plays a crucial role in emotional regulation and physiological responses, with affective touch demonstrating significant benefits in stress reduction and affective modulation. Existing approaches to replicating affective touch have relied on manual stroking or robotic brushing mechanisms, both of which present limitations in consistency, precision, and real-world applicability. This study introduces a Wearable Microblower System that utilizes airflow-based tactile stimulation to provide precisely controlled and reproducible affective touch stimuli. The system is designed to generate affective touch by producing stroking sensations at CT-optimal velocities and pressures, ensuring effective activation of CT afferents. A systematic performance evaluation confirmed that the device delivers tactile forces within the CT-optimal range, suggesting its potential feasibility for affective haptic applications. Moreover, the proposed system enables continuous and natural stroking through a control strategy that incorporates sequential activation of multiple stroking points. Our evaluation results indicate that the proposed device offers a quantifiable and reproducible means of delivering affective touch, with potential applications in stress alleviation, affective computing, and virtual reality–mediated haptic experiences. Future work will explore empirical validation through comparative studies and further integration with immersive technologies.