Surface Haptic DevicesJoe Mullenbach and his team in the Neuroscience and Robotics Laboratory (NxR) have built and distributed a number of surface haptic devices to university and corporate researchers. They also work with the Inclusive Technology Lab at Northwestern.
Contribution
We design, build, and test devices in the Neuroscience and Robotics Laboratory (NxR) that provide haptic feedback on surfaces. We also work with the Inclusive Technology Lab at Northwestern.
Problem
Touch is a fundamental source of information that is critical to accomplish everyday actions. However, the things that we arguably touch the most- our smartphones and other touchscreen displays- are featureless sheets of flat glass.
Approach
While the dominant haptic design in commercial devices centers on vibration, we instead focus on generating force on the fingertip. Force feedback is the gold standard for haptic feedback, but enabling its use in a compact form without the use of a handle or stylus requires developing new methods of actuation. Investigating the physics of these actuation methods, and then developing them into useful surface haptic devices was the primary focus of my research. These devices open up a new design space in human computer interaction, which has allowed us to investigate their use using different methods in different scenarios such as: measuring visual attention and cognitive load while driving in a vehicle, using open-ended prompts to assess affective haptic communication between pairs, and using information transfer theory to assess a new method of touch communication for use by people with vision impairments. I also led a project to develop low-cost and easy-to-use surface haptic devices in an attempt to impact the design community beyond our lab. To date, we have built and distributed over 75 surface haptic devices to university and corporate researchers and designers and they have been used in competitions, workshops, classes, and publications.