Liquid Connections: Reimagining Social Touch in Virtual Reality

Touch underpins empathy and social connection, yet its affective qualities remain limited in virtual environments. This paper investigates how fluid metaphors and pseudo-haptic feedback can evoke social touch without physical contact. Liquid Connections is a VR system that translates proximity and motion into water-like particle behaviours-attraction, adhesion, and rippling-rendering touch as continuous modulation rather than discrete interaction.