A Parallel Elastic Haptic Thimble for Wide Bandwidth Cutaneous Feedback.

Design of wearable fingertip haptic devices is often a compromise between conflicting features: lightness and compactness, against rich and neat haptic feedback. On one side direct drive actuators (i.e. voice coils) provide a clean haptic feedback with high dynamics, with limited maximum output forces. On the other side mechanical transmissions with reduction can increase output force of micro sized motors, at the cost of slower and often noisy output signals. In this work we present a compact fingertip haptic device based on a parallel elastic mechanism: it merges the output of two differently designed actuators in a single, wide bandwidth haptic feedback. Each actuator is designed with a different role: one for rendering fast, high frequency force components, the other for rendering constant to low frequency components. In the work we present design and implementation of the device, followed by experimental characterization of its performance in terms of frequency response and rendering capabilities

Introducing wearable haptics for rendering velocity feedback in VR serious games for neuro-rehabilitation of children

Rehabilitation in virtual reality offers advantages in terms of flexibility and parametrization of exercises, repeatability, and continuous data recording and analysis of the progress of the patient, also promoting high engagement and cognitive challenges. Still, most of the proposed virtual settings provide a high quality, immersive visual and audio feedback, without involving the sense of touch. In this paper, we show the design, implementation, and first evaluation of a gaming scenario for upper limb rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy. In particular, we took care to introduce haptic feedback as a useful source of sensory information for the proposed task, considering—at the same time—the strict constraints for haptic wearable devices to comply with patient’s comfort, residual motor abilities, and with the embedded tracking features of the latest VR technologies. To show the potential of haptics in a rehabilitation setup, the proposed device and rendering method have been used to improve the velocity control of upper limb movements during the VR exercise, given its importance as a motor recovery metric. Eight healthy participants were enrolled, and results showed that haptic feedback can lead to lower speed tracking errors and higher movement smoothness, making the proposed setup suitable to be used in a rehabilitation context as a way to promote movement fluidity during exercises

Sensory Communication

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction and reports on twelve research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant 5 R01 DC00117National Institutes of Health Contract 2 P01 DC00361National Institutes of Health Grant 5 R01 DC00126National Institutes of Health Grant R01-DC00270U.S. Air Force - Office of Scientific Research Contract AFOSR-90-0200National Institutes of Health Grant R29-DC00625U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-88-K-0604U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-91-J-1454U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-1814U.S. Navy - Naval Training Systems Center Contract N61339-93-M-1213U.S. Navy - Naval Training Systems Center Contract N61339-93-C-0055U.S. Navy - Naval Training Systems Center Contract N61339-93-C-0083U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-92-J-4005U.S. Navy - Office of Naval Research Grant N00014-93-1-119

Remote tactile feedback on interactive surfaces

Direct touch input on interactive surfaces has become a predominating standard for the manipulation of digital information in our everyday lives. However, compared to our rich interchange with the physical world, the interaction with touch-based systems is limited in terms of flexibility of input and expressiveness of output. Particularly, the lack of tactile feedback greatly reduces the general usability of a touch-based system and hinders from a productive entanglement of the virtual information with the physical world. This thesis proposes remote tactile feedback as a novel method to provide programmed tactile stimuli supporting direct touch interactions. The overall principle is to spatially decouple the location of touch input (e.g. fingertip or hand) and the location of the tactile sensation on the user's body (e.g. forearm or back). Remote tactile feedback is an alternative concept which avoids particular challenges of existing approaches. Moreover, the principle provides inherent characteristics which can accommodate for the requirements of current and future touch interfaces. To define the design space, the thesis provides a structured overview of current forms of touch surfaces and identifies trends towards non-planar and non-rigid forms with more versatile input mechanisms. Furthermore, a classification highlights limitations of the current methods to generate tactile feedback on touch-based systems. The proposed notion of tactile sensory relocation is a form of sensory substitution. Underlying neurological and psychological principles corroborate the approach. Thus, characteristics of the human sense of touch and principles from sensory substitution help to create a technical and conceptual framework for remote tactile feedback. Three consecutive user studies measure and compare the effects of both direct and remote tactile feedback on the performance and the subjective ratings of the user. Furthermore, the experiments investigate different body locations for the application of tactile stimuli. The results show high subjective preferences for tactile feedback, regardless of its type of application. Additionally, the data reveals no significant differences between the effects of direct and remote stimuli. The results back the feasibility of the approach and provide parameters for the design of stimuli and the effective use of the concept. The main part of the thesis describes the systematical exploration and analysis of the inherent characteristics of remote tactile feedback. Four specific features of the principle are identified: (1) the simplification of the integration of cutaneous stimuli, (2) the transmission of proactive, reactive and detached feedback, (3) the increased expressiveness of tactile sensations and (4) the provision of tactile feedback during multi-touch. In each class, several prototypical remote tactile interfaces are used in evaluations to analyze the concept. For example, the PhantomStation utilizes psychophysical phenomena to reduce the number of single tactile actuators. An evaluation with the prototype compares standard actuator technologies with each other in order to enable simple and scalable implementations. The ThermalTouch prototype creates remote thermal stimuli to reproduce material characteristics on standard touchscreens. The results show a stable rate of virtual object discrimination based on remotely applied temperature profiles. The AutmotiveRTF system is implemented in a vehicle and supports the driver's input on the in-vehicle-infotainment system. A field study with the system focuses on evaluating the effects of proactive and reactive feedback on the user's performance. The main contributions of the dissertation are: First, the thesis introduces the principle of remote tactile feedback and defines a design space for this approach as an alternative method to provide non-visual cues on interactive surfaces. Second, the thesis describes technical examples to rapidly prototype remote tactile feedback systems. Third, these prototypes are deployed in several evaluations which highlight the beneficial subjective and objective effects of the approach. Finally, the thesis presents features and inherent characteristics of remote tactile feedback as a means to support the interaction on today's touchscreens and future interactive surfaces.Die Interaktion mit berührungsempfindlichen Oberflächen ist heute ein Standard für die Manipulation von digitaler Information. Jedoch weist die Bedienung dieser interaktiven Bildschirme starke Einschränkungen hinsichtlich der Flexibilität bei der Eingabe und der Ausdruckskraft der Ausgabe auf, wenn man sie mit den vielfältigen Möglichkeiten des Umgangs mit Objekten in unserer Alltagswelt vergleicht. Besonders die nicht vorhandenen Tastsinnesrückmeldungen vermindern stark die Benutzbarkeit solcher Systeme und verhindern eine effektive Verknüpfung von virtueller Information und physischer Welt. Die vorliegende Dissertation beschreibt den Ansatz der 'distalen taktilen Rückmeldungen' als neuartige Möglichkeit zur Vermittlung programmierter Tastsinnesreize an Benutzer interaktiver Oberflächen. Das Grundprinzip dabei ist die räumliche Trennung zwischen der Eingabe durch Berührung (z.B. mit der Fingerspitze) und dem daraus resultierenden taktilen Reiz am Körper der Benutzer (z.B. am Rücken). Dabei vermeidet das Konzept der distalen taktilen Rückmeldungen einzelne technische und konzeptionelle Nachteile existierender Ansätze. Zusätzlich bringt es Interaktionsmöglichkeiten mit sich, die den Eigenheiten der Interaktion mit aktuellen und auch zukünftigen berührungsempfindlichen Oberflächen Rechnung tragen. Zu Beginn zeigt ein Überblick zu relevanten Arbeiten den aktuellen Forschungstrend hin zu nicht-flachen und verformbaren berührungsempfindlichen Oberflächen sowie zu vielfältigeren Eingabemethoden. Eine Klassifizierung ordnet existierende technische Verfahren zur Erzeugung von künstlichen Tastsinnesreizen und stellt jeweils konzeptuelle und technische Herausforderungen dar. Der in dieser Arbeit vorgeschlagene Ansatz der Verlagerung von Tastsinnesreizen ist eine Form der sensorischen Substitution, zugrunde liegende neurologische und psychologische Prinzipien untermauern das Vorgehen. Die Wirkprinzipien des menschlichen Tastsinnes und die Systeme zur sensorischen Substitution liefern daher konzeptionelle und technische Richtlinien zur Umsetzung der distalen taktilen Rückmeldungen. Drei aufeinander aufbauende Benutzerstudien vergleichen die Auswirkungen von direkten und distalen taktilen Rückmeldungen auf die Leistung und das Verhalten von Benutzern sowie deren subjektive Bewertung der Interaktion. Außerdem werden in den Experimenten die Effekte von Tastsinnesreizen an verschiedenen Körperstellen untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen starke Präferenzen für Tastsinnesrückmeldungen, unabhängig von deren Applikationsort. Die Daten ergeben weiterhin keine signifikanten Unterschiede bei den quantitativen Effekten von direktem und distalen Rückmeldungen. Diese Ergebnisse befürworten die Realisierbarkeit des Ansatzes und zeigen Richtlinien für weitere praktische Umsetzungen auf. Der Hauptteil der Dissertation beschreibt die systematische Untersuchung und Analyse der inhärenten Möglichkeiten, die sich aus der Vermittlung distaler taktiler Rückmeldungen ergeben. Vier verschiedene Charakteristika werden identifiziert: (1) die vereinfachte Integration von Tastsinnesreizen, (2) die Vermittlung von proaktiven, reaktiven und entkoppelten Rückmeldungen, (3) die erhöhte Bandbreite der taktilen Signale und (4) die Darstellung von individuellen Tastsinnesreizen für verschiedene Kontaktpunkte mit der berührungsempfindlichen Oberfläche. Jedes dieser Prinzipien wird durch prototypische Systeme umgesetzt und in Benutzerstudien analysiert. Beispielsweise nutzt das System PhantomStation psychophysikalische Illusionen, um die Anzahl der einzelnen Reizgeber zu reduzieren. In einer Evaluierung des Prototypen werden mehrere Aktuatortechnologien verglichen, um einfache und skalierbare Ansätze zu identifizieren. Der ThermalTouch-Prototyp wird dazu genutzt, distale thermale Reize zu vermitteln, um so Materialeigenschaften auf Berührungsbildschirmen darstellen zu können. Eine Benutzerstudie zeigt, dass sich auf Basis dieser Temperaturverläufe virtuelle Objekte unterscheiden lassen. Das AutomotiveRTF-System wird schließlich in ein Kraftfahrzeug integriert, um den Fahrer bei der Eingabe auf dem Informations- und Unterhaltungssystem zu unterstützen. Eine Feldstudie untersucht die Auswirkungen der proaktiven und reaktiven Rückmeldungen auf die Benutzerleistung. Die vorliegende Dissertation leistet mehrere Beiträge zur Mensch-Maschine-Interaktion: Das Prinzip der distalen taktilen Rückmeldungen wird eingeführt als Alternative zur Erzeugung nicht-visueller Rückmeldungen auf interaktiven Oberflächen. Es werden technische Verfahrensweisen zur prototypischen Implementierung solcher Systeme vorgeschlagen. Diese technischen Prototypen werden in einer Vielzahl verschiedener Benutzerstudien eingesetzt, welche die quantitativen und qualitativen Vorteile des Ansatzes aufzeigen. Schließlich wird gezeigt, wie sich das Prinzip zur Unterstützung heutiger und zukünftiger Interaktionsformen mit berührungsempfindlichen Bildschirmen nutzen lässt

Introducing wearable haptics for rendering velocity feedback in VR serious games for neuro-rehabilitation of children

Rehabilitation in virtual reality offers advantages in terms of flexibility and parametrization of exercises, repeatability, and continuous data recording and analysis of the progress of the patient, also promoting high engagement and cognitive challenges. Still, most of the proposed virtual settings provide a high quality, immersive visual and audio feedback, without involving the sense of touch. In this paper, we show the design, implementation, and first evaluation of a gaming scenario for upper limb rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy. In particular, we took care to introduce haptic feedback as a useful source of sensory information for the proposed task, considering—at the same time—the strict constraints for haptic wearable devices to comply with patient’s comfort, residual motor abilities, and with the embedded tracking features of the latest VR technologies. To show the potential of haptics in a rehabilitation setup, the proposed device and rendering method have been used to improve the velocity control of upper limb movements during the VR exercise, given its importance as a motor recovery metric. Eight healthy participants were enrolled, and results showed that haptic feedback can lead to lower speed tracking errors and higher movement smoothness, making the proposed setup suitable to be used in a rehabilitation context as a way to promote movement fluidity during exercises

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2022, held in Hamburg, Germany, in May 2022. The 36 regular papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 129 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: haptic science; haptic technology; and haptic applications

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were organized in topical sections on haptic science, haptic technology, and haptic applications. This year's focus is on accessibility

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were organized in topical sections on haptic science, haptic technology, and haptic applications. This year's focus is on accessibility

Divisions Within the Posterior Parietal Cortex Help Touch Meet Vision

The parietal cortex is divided into two major functional regions: the anterior parietal cortex that includes primary somatosensory cortex, and the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) that includes the rest of the parietal lobe. The PPC contains multiple representations of space. In Dijkerman and de Haan’s (see record 2007-13802-022) model, higher spatial representations are separate from PPC functions. This model should be developed further so that the functions of the somatosensory system are integrated with specific functions within the PPC and higher spatial representations. Through this further specification of the model, one can make better predictions regarding functional interactions between somatosensory and visual systems