Haptics 101:
“Objects embody different ways of seeing". We are wired for feedback through many media, but the one with the most potential is underutilized. Active touch has capacities for a plethora of novel interactions (we even have nerves wired purely for intimacy!) and yet the public only interact with the bare-bones e.g. sliders and notification vibrations. As part of my edification, I read books on the tactual sense and new tactile surfaces and, as an ongoing project, will concurrently summarize them here.
“Haptics”? Que?
Well, the technical definition is pretty broad. Really, it can be anything remotely related to touch. However, for my purposes I’m going to stick to the Human-Computer Interaction / Minority Report / Ghost in the Shell abstraction of futuristic interfaces.
Haptics is the combination of active touch (intentional exploration) and kinesthesia (awareness of one’s kinesthetic movement) to create a sense of perception. Take when an object starts to slip from our grip — we perceive the frictional force as it’s pulled by gravity. The hands generate forces in response to balance any resultant forces in the opposite direction of the slip.
A great haptic display would embed and extend our ability to manipulate touch. Like a blind person who feels the ends of their perception at the ends of a cane, haptic interfaces can extend our sensory function to beyond the body.
Does this count as passive touch?
“If you build it, he will come.”
Why is it important? Nuanced haptic displays can facilitate a new generation in distance interaction. For example, given the intimacy of the tactile sense, it is only a question of time for when and how we will integrate it into gaming, from World of Warcraft secret guild handshakes to bridging long distance relationships through Second Life. Self-representation and identity, time-dependent and -delayed feedback, and communication of affection would blossom with potential, especially with regards to social gaming and cooperation.
Haptic surfaces and displays would impact lives. The increasing gamification of habit-development indicates not only that people have tendencies of their real-world lifestyle they would like to change, but also look for fun ways to add delight to the process. Touch is essential for bonding and human development, and in fact children that grow up deficient in intimate touch suffer cognitive development issues.
To be organized:
*Applications of Haptic Illusions:*
Space-time illusions, such as mislocalization and misperception of movement, leave space to create and augment signals to users (e.g. fake or virtual intimacy, furniture that strokes/massages you) — up to signals that may not have counterparts in the real world; e.g. geometric features determined by tangential forces cures and not by surface geometry. Haptic displays for virtual reality need to match natural perceptive ability of the user but currently are limited in bandwidth and range of features.
Interest in multi sensory displays (haptic + auditory/visual) to compensate for current shortcomings e.g. paying attention to virtual visual spring deformation cues rather than forces generated
/Pseudo-haptic feedback/ synchronizes visual information on screen with haptic cues by the user
*Haptic and Tactile Displays*
Haptic displays have had varied in success, from ubiquitous braille to vanguard robotics. The challenge is in creating systems of intuition that are uniquely valuable and not available more quickly through other senses.
The sense of touch as a medium of communication is nascent but growing. The large area and three dimensional spread of skin makes it a stimulating but underutilized way to capture our attention. The magic about haptic communication is that it is private, which gives individuals the autonomy to pursue whatever is within their free means (including intimacy, aggression and other repressed tactile-related emotions).
*Tactile Displays*
Static tactile displays commonly input vibration, pressure or stretches to the skin. Vibro-tactile displays stimulate the skin using a piezoelectric or electromagnetic motor and contact pad or pin on the skin. Electro-tactile displays pass variable pules through arrays on the skin to activate nerve fibers for a tingling pressure or sharp pain depending on the waveform. Refreshable braille displays use piezoelectric actuators to control individual pins. Non-contact displays include speakers modulating air pressure (ultrasound). Mechanical stretching of the skin presents cues (direction with parallel stretches and orientation with rotation).
Look up BrainPort (Wicab, Inc.)
*Gaming and Consumer Electronics*
Companies attempt to integrate skin stretching into VR controllers to mimic the shear and friction of grasped objects. They convey a sense of inertia, wrenching and impact. Vibration has always been used for success, resistance and knock back e.g. in driving games with car crashes or in fighting games with knockouts.
The current standard is obvious in the monotonous vibration of phones for calls or notifications. Vibrations (as opposed to the others) are used as individuals are more sensitive to the nuance of dynamic ranges and pulse lengths, which can communicate degrees of urgency.
*Individual and Driving Navigation*
Vibro-tactile systems in wheels can alert fatigued drivers whether they are veering out of lane and aid with navigation by vibrating in the direction of turns. Auditory signals have been more successful with emergency collision avoidance due to faster processing speed, and the question of a graded or binary vibration is still posed to reduce annoyance. Personal navigation systems like the TSAS have been explored, and even Google’s work with Levi’s on Jacquard has been successful; there is an emergence of electronic and electronic textiles that can be explored with this realm.
*Haptic Displays*
Haptic displays are much like tactile displays but engage the kinesthetic sense simultaneously so users can sense material properties and manipulate objects directly. Haptics are bidirectional; in a Heisenberg fashion, an individual affects the object they sense by engaging with the object.
The devices are in two broad categories: admittance and impedance devices sense one of a user’s force or position and output the other. Displays are commonly made with brushed DC motors but researchers have invented shape-memory alloy, pneumatic, hydraulic and MRI motors for particular use cases.
Coming thesis statements":
Designers pick and choose laws of physics they wish to hold in new virtual worlds. Industrial design affordances have their place… Skeuomorphism and role of old paradigms and context…
Simulations aren’t confined to virtual worlds; fake flowers and plastic pottery are synthetic representations of the real object. Artists simulate our perception through methods of perspective.