Hidden Rules of Human Touch

A study done by Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences study examined how people naturally interact with novel objects without specific goals.  The principal investigator was Buse Aktas, a robotics researcher and artist.   Aktas examined how people used touch to reach goal.  Participants engaged with everyday items and unfamiliar objects, and people made up their own goals.  This led to a dynamic biomorphic structure.  The researchers identified four main interaction patterns such as passive observational, active perceptual, constructive, and hedonic. The object type and its responsiveness influenced the interaction style. These insights could inform the design of intuitive human-machine interfaces, using materials to elicit specific behaviors and feedback.  The author of this article was Anne J. Manning writing for the Harvard Gazette for September 22, 2025. Article Citation: Manning, A. J. (2025, September 22). How we touch. Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences. https://seas.harvard.edu/news/2025/09/how-we-touch