Enjoy that high-five feeling, even when you're apartRemote High-FiveNTT Communication Science Laboratories

We're making it possible to experience the shared joy of a high-five, even when you're far apart. Each remote location has a video device with a transparent board placed in front of it, and when one user high-fives the board, the other user's board vibrates to convey the sensation.We built our system with the aim of enabling people involved in sports during the COVID-19 pandemic—such as athletes and their families and supporters—to share their joy and support with each other through vibration transmission, without having to make direct physical contact.

COVID-19 has led to a time when online communication is widely used as people avoid direct contact.
The pandemic has reduced the opportunities for people to express their emotions through physical communication like handshakes, hugs, and high-fives.
The challenge is that these physical aspects are missing from things like social media messages and phone and video calls.

• In addition to audio and video, this technology allows vibration to be transmitted to remote locations in real time, enabling haptic communication.

• In sports matches, athletes and their families can communicate physically to share their joy and support even when they are far apart, without having direct physical contact.

This is a vibration transmission device that can simultaneously transmit audio, video and vibration to remote locations in real time.
Each person at the remote location views a visual device with a transparent haptic measurement board in front of it. When one board is hit, the board in the other location vibrates. There is a camera between the transparent plate and the video device, and each video device displays the feed from the other person's camera.
This means that when one user high-fives the transparent board, the other video device transmits their image and vibration so the other user can see their hand.
You can see a video of each other's hands while transmitting vibration to each other, and this communication through vibration transmission makes the artificial high-five possible.
In addition, how hard you hit the board affects how much the other board vibrates: hitting it harder will cause a stronger vibration and vice versa.
In addition to high-five vibration, the system can measure and present various methods of hitting the board, allowing it to be used in a variety of different applications.

NTT Communication Science Laboratories - Human Information Science Laboratory