HapBead: on-skin microfluidic haptic interface using tunable bead

On-skin haptic interfaces using soft elastomers which are thin and flexible have significantly improved in recent years. Many are focused on vibrotactile feedback that requires complicated parameter tuning. Another approach is based on mechanical forces created via piezoelectric devices and other methods for non-vibratory haptic sensations like stretching, twisting. These are often bulky with electronic components and associated drivers are complicated with limited control of timing and precision. This paper proposes HapBead, a new on-skin haptic interface that is capable of rendering vibration like tactile feedback using microfluidics. HapBead leverages a microfluidic channel to precisely and agilely oscillate a small bead via liquid flow, which then generates various motion patterns in channel that creates highly tunable haptic sensations on skin. We developed a proof-of-concept design to implement thin, flexible and easily affordable HapBead platform, and verified its haptic rendering capabilities via attaching it to users’ fingertips. A study was carried out and confirmed that participants could accurately tell six different haptic patterns rendered by HapBead. HapBead enables new wearable display applications with multiple integrated functionalities such as on-skin haptic doodles, mixed reality haptics and visual-haptic displays

A Review of Non-Invasive Haptic Feedback stimulation Techniques for Upper Extremity Prostheses

A sense of touch is essential for amputees to reintegrate into their social and work life. The design of the next generation of the prostheses will have the ability to effectively convey the tactile information between the amputee and the artificial limbs. This work reviews non-invasive haptic feedback stimulation techniques to convey the tactile information from the prosthetic hand to the amputee’s brain. Various types of actuators that been used to stimulate the patient’s residual limb for different types of artificial prostheses in previous studies have been reviewed in terms of functionality, effectiveness, wearability and comfort. The non-invasive hybrid feedback stimulation system was found to be better in terms of the stimulus identification rate of the haptic prostheses’ users. It can be conclude that integrating hybrid haptic feedback stimulation system with the upper limb prostheses leads to improving its acceptance among users

An Overview of Wearable Haptic Technologies and Their Performance in Virtual Object Exploration.

We often interact with our environment through manual handling of objects and exploration of their properties. Object properties (OP), such as texture, stiffness, size, shape, temperature, weight, and orientation provide necessary information to successfully perform interactions. The human haptic perception system plays a key role in this. As virtual reality (VR) has been a growing field of interest with many applications, adding haptic feedback to virtual experiences is another step towards more realistic virtual interactions. However, integrating haptics in a realistic manner, requires complex technological solutions and actual user-testing in virtual environments (VEs) for verification. This review provides a comprehensive overview of recent wearable haptic devices (HDs) categorized by the OP exploration for which they have been verified in a VE. We found 13 studies which specifically addressed user-testing of wearable HDs in healthy subjects. We map and discuss the different technological solutions for different OP exploration which are useful for the design of future haptic object interactions in VR, and provide future recommendations

Toward tactilely transparent gloves: Collocated slip sensing and vibrotactile actuation

Tactile information plays a critical role in the human ability to manipulate objects with one\u27s hands. Many environments require the use of protective gloves that diminish essential tactile feedback. Under these circumstances, seemingly simple tasks such as picking up an object can become very difficult. This paper introduces the SlipGlove, a novel device that uses an advanced sensing and actuation system to return this vital tactile information to the user. Our SlipGlove prototypes focus on providing tactile cues associated with slip between the glove and a contact surface. Relative motion is sensed using optical mouse sensors embedded in the glove\u27s surface. This information is conveyed to the wearer via miniature vibration motors placed inside the glove against the wearer\u27s skin. The collocation of slip sensing and tactile feedback creates a system that is natural and intuitive to use. We report results from a human subject study demonstrating that the SlipGlove allows the wearer to approach the capabilities of bare skin in detecting and reacting to fingertip slip. Users of the SlipGlove also had significantly faster and more consistent reaction to fingertip slip when compared to a traditional glove design. The SlipGlove technology allows us to enhance human perception when interacting with real environments and move toward the goal of a tactilely transparent glove

Multisensory wearable interface for immersion and telepresence in robotics

The idea of being present in a remote location has inspired researchers to develop robotic devices that make humans to experience the feeling of telepresence. These devices need of multiple sensory feedback to provide a more realistic telepresence experience. In this work, we develop a wearable interface for immersion and telepresence that provides to human with the capability of both to receive multisensory feedback from vision, touch and audio and to remotely control a robot platform. Multimodal feedback from a remote environment is based on the integration of sensor technologies coupled to the sensory system of the robot platform. Remote control of the robot is achieved by a modularised architecture, which allows to visually explore the remote environment. We validated our work with multiple experiments where participants, located at different venues, were able to successfully control the robot platform while visually exploring, touching and listening a remote environment. In our experiments we used two different robotic platforms: the iCub humanoid robot and the Pioneer LX mobile robot. These experiments show that our wearable interface is comfortable, easy to use and adaptable to different robotic platforms. Furthermore, we observed that our approach allows humans to experience a vivid feeling of being present in a remote environment

Toward wearable pneumatic haptic devices for microscale force feedback applications

The addition of haptic feedback to systems and devices allows a human user to gain a more complete understanding of the remote environment they are working in. Several applications, such as robotic minimally invasive surgery (MIS) and virtual reality gaming, have drawn interests for integrating haptic or tactile feedback onto remote operating tools. While both research studies and commercial products have clearly demonstrated the benefits of adding haptic feedback, many open questions remain for reaching the full potential of haptic feedback. This research focuses on investigating how light-weight, low-cost pneumatic haptic devices can be deployed on human hands, possibly in multiple locations, to enhance user comprehension of force feedback. The aim is to enhance the understanding of microscale pneumatic devices in their potential and limitations as a wearable haptic feedback system. This work investigates the design, construction, and testing of a binary pneumatic tactile display. Pneumatically actuated devices are chosen because they are light-weight, low-cost, and less-invasive in nature. Arrays of pneumatic balloons of different sizes were designed and constructed by taking into consideration the ease of the fabrication process and the effectiveness of feedback when placed on human hands. Human perception experiments were performed to test the pneumatic balloon arrays to determine the potential of providing binary haptic feedback. The results showed differences in sensitivity due to the location where the balloon array is placed as well as the size of the device. In addition, it appears that the use of multiple balloon arrays placed in different parts of a human hand can improve the overall effectiveness of the feedback, even if they are not placed on the most sensitive areas. Lastly, the experiments demonstrated the potential of using multiple pneumatic balloon arrays to produce identifiable binary patterns

Haptic wearables as sensory replacement, sensory augmentation and trainer - a review

Sensory impairments decrease quality of life and can slow or hinder rehabilitation. Small, computationally powerful electronics have enabled the recent development of wearable systems aimed to improve function for individuals with sensory impairments. The purpose of this review is to synthesize current haptic wearable research for clinical applications involving sensory impairments. We define haptic wearables as untethered, ungrounded body worn devices that interact with skin directly or through clothing and can be used in natural environments outside a laboratory. Results of this review are categorized by degree of sensory impairment. Total impairment, such as in an amputee, blind, or deaf individual, involves haptics acting as sensory replacement; partial impairment, as is common in rehabilitation, involves haptics as sensory augmentation; and no impairment involves haptics as trainer. This review found that wearable haptic devices improved function for a variety of clinical applications including: rehabilitation, prosthetics, vestibular loss, osteoarthritis, vision loss and hearing loss. Future haptic wearables development should focus on clinical needs, intuitive and multimodal haptic displays, low energy demands, and biomechanical compliance for long-term usage

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction and reports on fifteen research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant RO1 DC00117National Institutes of Health Grant RO1 DC02032National Institutes of Health Contract P01-DC00361National Institutes of Health Contract N01-DC22402National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders Grant 2 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00270National Institutes of Health Contract N01 DC-5-2107National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 DC00100U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Contract N61339-94-C-0087U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Contract N61339-95-K-0014U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Grant N00014-93-1-1399U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research/Naval Air Warfare Center Grant N00014-94-1-1079U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Subcontract 40167U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1814National Institutes of Health Grant R01-NS33778U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-88-K-0604National Aeronautics and Space Administration Grant NCC 2-771U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Grant F49620-94-1-0236U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Agreement with Brandeis Universit