The Effect of Haptic Feedback on Efficiency and Safety During Preretinal Membrane Peeling Simulation.

PurposeWe determine whether haptic feedback improves surgical performance and outcome during simulated a preretinal membrane peeling procedure.MethodsA haptic-enabled virtual reality preretinal membrane peeling simulator was developed using a surgical cockpit with two multifinger haptic devices. Six subjects (three trained retina surgeons and three nonsurgeons) performed the preretinal membrane peeling surgical procedure using two modes of operation: visual and haptic feedback, and visual feedback only.ResultsTask completion time, tool tip path trajectory, tool-retina collision force, and retinal damage were all reduced with haptic feedback used and compared to modes where haptic feedback was disabled.ConclusionsHaptic feedback improves efficiency and safety during preretinal membrane peeling simulation.Translational relevanceThese findings highlight the potential benefit of haptic feedback for improving performance and safety of vitreoretinal surgery

Haptic Experience and the Design of Drawing Interfaces

Haptic feedback has the potential to enhance users’ sense of being engaged and creative in their artwork. Current work on providing haptic feedback in computer-based drawing applications has focused mainly on the realism of the haptic sensation rather than the users’ experience of that sensation in the context of their creative work. We present a study that focuses on user experience of three haptic drawing interfaces. These interfaces were based on two different haptic metaphors, one of which mimicked familiar drawing tools (such as pen, pencil or crayon on smooth or rough paper) and the other of which drew on abstract descriptors of haptic experience (roughness, stickiness, scratchiness and smoothness). It was found that users valued having control over the haptic sensation; that each metaphor was preferred by approximately half of the participants; and that the real world metaphor interface was considered more helpful than the abstract one, whereas the abstract interface was considered to better support creativity. This suggests that future interfaces for artistic work should have user-modifiable interaction styles for controlling the haptic sensation

Textured Surfaces for Ultrasound Haptic Displays

We demonstrate a technique for rendering textured haptic surfaces in mid-air, using an ultrasound haptic display. Our technique renders tessellated 3D `haptic' shapes with different waveform properties, creating surfaces with distinct perceptions

Touching the invisible: Localizing ultrasonic haptic cues

While mid-air gestures offer new possibilities to interact with or around devices, some situations, such as interacting with applications, playing games or navigating, may require visual attention to be focused on a main task. Ultrasonic haptic feedback can provide 3D spatial haptic cues that do not demand visual attention for these contexts. In this paper, we present an initial study of active exploration of ultrasonic haptic virtual points that investigates the spatial localization with and without the use of the visual modality. Our results show that, when providing haptic feedback giving the location of a widget, users perform 50% more accurately compared to providing visual feedback alone. When provided with a haptic location of a widget alone, users are more than 30% more accurate than when given a visual location. When aware of the location of the haptic feedback, active exploration decreased the minimum recommended widget size from 2cm2 to 1cm2 when compared to passive exploration from previous studies. Our results will allow designers to create better mid-air interactions using this new form of haptic feedback

Solving multi-target haptic problems in menu interaction

While haptic feedback has been shown to enhance user performance and satisfaction in single target interactions in desktop user interfaces, it is not clear whether this will hold for more realistic, multi-target interactions. Here we present an experimental study of haptically enhanced menus. We evaluate a visual condition, a haptic condition and an adjusted haptic condition designed to support menu interactions. We conclude that thoughtful design can create multi-target haptic augmentations that provide performance benefits

The Effect of Haptic Feedback on Basic Social. Interaction within Shared Virtual Environments

This paper describes an experiment that studies the effect of basic haptic feedback in creating a sense of social interaction within a shared virtual environment (SVE). Although there have been a number of studies investigating the effect of haptic feedback on collaborative task performance, they do not address the effect it has in inducing social presence. The purpose of this experiment is to show that haptic feedback enhances the sense of social presence within a mediated environment. An experiment was carried out using a shared desktop based virtual environment where 20 remotely located couples who did not know one another had to solve a puzzle together. In 10 groups they had shared haptic communication through their hands, and in another group they did not. Hence the haptic feedback was not used for completing the task itself, but rather as a means of social interacting – communicating with the other participant. The results suggest that basic haptic feedback increases the sense of social presence within the shared VE

Egocentric Reference Frame Bias In The Palmar Haptic Perception Of Surface Orientation

The effect of egocentric reference frames on palmar haptic perception of orientation was investigated in vertically separated locations in a sagittal plane. Reference stimuli to be haptically matched were presented either haptically (to the contralateral hand) or visually. As in prior investigations of haptic orientation perception, a strong egocentric bias was found, such that haptic orientation matches made in the lower part of personal space were much lower (i.e., were perceived as being higher) than those made at eye level. The same haptic bias was observed both when the reference surface to be matched was observed visually and when bimanual matching was used. These findings support the conclusion that, despite the presence of an unambiguous allocentric (gravitational) reference frame in vertical planes, haptic orientation perception in the sagittal plane reflects an egocentric bias

Haptic guidance improves the visuo-manual tracking of trajectories

BACKGROUND: Learning to perform new movements is usually achieved by following visual demonstrations. Haptic guidance by a force feedback device is a recent and original technology which provides additional proprioceptive cues during visuo-motor learning tasks. The effects of two types of haptic guidances-control in position (HGP) or in force (HGF)-on visuo-manual tracking ("following") of trajectories are still under debate. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPALS FINDINGS: Three training techniques of haptic guidance (HGP, HGF or control condition, NHG, without haptic guidance) were evaluated in two experiments. Movements produced by adults were assessed in terms of shapes (dynamic time warping) and kinematics criteria (number of velocity peaks and mean velocity) before and after the training sessions. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These results show that the addition of haptic information, probably encoded in force coordinates, play a crucial role on the visuo-manual tracking of new trajectories