  Social touch is essential for our social interactions, communication, and
well-being. It has been shown to reduce anxiety and loneliness; and is a key
channel to transmit emotions for which words are not sufficient, such as love,
sympathy, reassurance, etc. However, direct physical contact is not always
possible due to being remotely located, interacting in a virtual environment,
or as a result of a health issue. Mediated social touch enables physical
interactions, despite the distance, by transmitting the haptic cues that
constitute social touch through devices. As this technology is fairly new, the
users' needs and their expectations on a device design and its features are
unclear, as well as who would use this technology, and in which conditions. To
better understand these aspects of the mediated interaction, we conducted an
online survey on 258 respondents located in the USA. Results give insights on
the type of interactions and device features that the US population would like
to use.
