With growing research on haptic interfaces, Mediated Social Touch (MST) technologies offer the potential to record, synthesise, and reproduce (RSR) touch experiences across space and time, enabling, for instance, a hug from afar and from the past. Although much of the existing research highlights the direct benefits of these systems, such as reducing loneliness and providing emotional support, little attention has been paid to their broader sociotechnical impacts. To address this gap, we used the Future Ripples method to speculate on possible effects of MST. We conducted three workshops with 24 participants, including potential users, domain experts, and haptics researchers. Throughout these sessions, participants collectively envisioned possible future scenarios, alongside opportunities and threats, and proposed actionable responses. Our qualitative analysis organised these insights into four themes and three distinctive challenges. These findings offer haptics researchers intervention points across the RSR pipeline to inform MST design, alongside methodological insights from applying Future Ripples to MST technology.

翻译：随着触觉界面研究的深入，中介社交触觉（MST）技术为跨时空记录、合成与再现触觉体验提供了潜力，例如实现跨越距离和时间的拥抱。尽管现有研究大多强调此类系统在减少孤独感、提供情感支持等方面的直接益处，但对其更广泛的社会技术影响关注甚少。为弥补这一缺口，我们采用“未来涟漪”方法对MST可能产生的影响进行推测。通过举办三场研讨会（涉及24名参与者，包括潜在用户、领域专家及触觉研究人员），参与者共同构建了可能的未来场景、机遇与威胁，并提出了切实可行的应对策略。我们的定性分析将这些见解归纳为四个主题和三个独特挑战。这些发现不仅为触觉研究人员提供了贯穿RSR管线的干预点以指导MST设计，还贡献了将“未来涟漪”方法应用于MST技术的元方法论见解。