Urban vibrations:Sensitivities in the field with a broad demographic

In this paper we describe a field study conducted with a wearable vibration belt where we test to determine the vibration intensity sensitivity ranges on a large diverse group of participants with evenly distributed ages and gender, ranging from seven to 79 years. We test for alterations in sensitivity in the field by introducing an escalating level of distraction in increasingly busy environments. The findings on sensitivity detection range differ from previous lab studies in that we found a decreased detection rate in busy environments. Here we test with a much larger sample and age range, and contribute with the first vibration sensitivity testing outside the lab in an urban public environment. © 2012 IEEE

Supporting Eyes-Free Human–Computer Interaction with Vibrotactile Haptification

The sense of touch is a crucial sense when using our hands in complex tasks. Some tasks we learn to do even without sight by just using the sense of touch in our fingers and hands. Modern touchscreen devices, however, have lost some of that tactile feeling while removing physical controls from the interaction. Touch is also a sense that is underutilized in interactions with technology and could provide new ways of interaction to support users. While users are using information technology in certain situations, they cannot visually and mentally focus completely during the interaction. Humans can utilize their sense of touch more comprehensively in interactions and learn to understand tactile information while interacting with information technology. This thesis introduces a set of experiments that evaluate human capabilities to understand and notice tactile information provided by current actuator technology and further introduces a couple of examples of haptic user interfaces (HUIs) to use under eyes-free use scenarios. These experiments evaluate the benefits of such interfaces for users and concludes with some guidelines and methods for how to create this kind of user interfaces. The experiments in this thesis can be divided into three groups. In the first group, with the first two experiments, the detection of vibrotactile stimuli and interpretation of the abstract meaning of vibrotactile feedback was evaluated. Experiments in the second group evaluated how to design rhythmic vibrotactile tactons to be basic vibrotactile primitives for HUIs. The last group of two experiments evaluated how these HUIs benefit the users in the distracted and eyes-free interaction scenarios. The primary aim for this series of experiments was to evaluate if utilizing the current level of actuation technology could be used more comprehensively than in current-day solutions with simple haptic alerts and notifications. Thus, to find out if the comprehensive use of vibrotactile feedback in interactions would provide additional benefits for the users, compared to the current level of haptic interaction methods and nonhaptic interaction methods. The main finding of this research is that while using more comprehensive HUIs in eyes-free distracted-use scenarios, such as while driving a car, the user’s main task, driving, is performed better. Furthermore, users liked the comprehensively haptified user interfaces

Värinäpalaute kävelynavigoinnin tukena

Älypuhelin on lähes korvannut erilliset autonavigaattorit, ja uusimmat navigointiohjelmat tukevat myös jalankulkutilaa. Älypuhelinten navigointiohjelmat antavat reittiopasteet puheena, reittinä kartalla ja symbolisina ohjeina. Nämä ohjeet vaativat käyttäjältä aktiivista seuraamista ja aiheuttavat liikennetilanteeseen kognitiivista kuormitusta ja tarkkaavaisuuden herpaantumista. Tuntoaistia voidaan käyttää rinnakkaisena aistikanavana kuulon ja näön rinnalla. Tässä tutkielmassa tutkitaan älypuhelimen kävelynavigointisovelluksen reittiopasteiden toistamista älykellolla värinäpalautteena. Älykellon värinämoottorilla tuotetaan käyttäjän ranteeseen värinään perustuvat reittiopasteet. Käyttäjätutkimuksella selvitettiin, ovatko värinäpalauteohjeet ymmärrettäviä ja tunnistettavia. Käyttäjät kävelivät lyhyen reitin tuntoaistiin perustuvien ohjeiden avustamana. Reittiopasteista toistettiin värinäpalautteella etäisyys seuraavaan käännökseen ja käännöksen suunta. Tutkimukseen osallistui kuusi vapaaehtoista henkilöä. Haastatteluiden perusteella värinäpalauteohjeet koettiin selkeiksi ja hyvin tunnistettaviksi. Tämän tutkimuksen tuloksia voidaan värinäpalauteohjeiden osalta soveltaa yhden värinämoottorin sisältäviin laitteisiin, eli ne voidaan siirtää myös älypuhelimella käytettäväksi, kunhan älypuhelin on esimerkiksi taskussa tiukasti kehoa vasten niin, että käyttäjä tuntee värinäpalauteohjeet

Haptic feedback to gaze events

Eyes are the window to the world, and most of the input from the surrounding environment is captured through the eyes. In Human-Computer Interaction too, gaze based interactions are gaining prominence, where the user’s gaze acts as an input to the system. Of late portable and inexpensive eye-tracking devices have made inroads in the market, opening up wider possibilities for interacting with a gaze. However, research on feedback to the gaze-based events is limited. This thesis proposes to study vibrotactile feedback to gaze-based interactions. This thesis presents a study conducted to evaluate different types of vibrotactile feedback and their role in response to a gaze-based event. For this study, an experimental setup was designed wherein when the user fixated the gaze on a functional object, vibrotactile feedback was provided either on the wrist or on the glasses. The study seeks to answer questions such as the helpfulness of vibrotactile feedback in identifying functional objects, user preference for the type of vibrotactile feedback, and user preference of the location of the feedback. The results of this study indicate that vibrotactile feedback was an important factor in identifying the functional object. The preference for the type of vibrotactile feedback was somewhat inconclusive as there were wide variations among the users over the type of vibrotactile feedback. The personal preference largely influenced the choice of location for receiving the feedback

INTERACTION BETWEEN SIGNAL COMPLEXITY AND PHYSICAL ACTIVITY IN VIBRO-TACTILE COMMUNICATION

Master'sMASTER OF ART

Assisting Navigation and Object Selection with Vibrotactile Cues

Our lives have been drastically altered by information technology in the last decades, leading to evolutionary mismatches between human traits and the modern environment. One particular mismatch occurs when visually demanding information technology overloads the perceptual, cognitive or motor capabilities of the human nervous system. This information overload could be partly alleviated by complementing visual interaction with haptics. The primary aim of this thesis was to investigate how to assist movement control with vibrotactile cues. Vibrotactile cues refer to technologymediated vibrotactile signals that notify users of perceptual events, propose users to make decisions, and give users feedback from actions. To explore vibrotactile cues, we carried out five experiments in two contexts of movement control: navigation and object selection. The goal was to find ways to reduce information load in these tasks, thus helping users to accomplish the tasks more effectively. We employed measurements such as reaction times, error rates, and task completion times. We also used subjective rating scales, short interviews, and free-form participant comments to assess the vibrotactile assisted interactive systems. The findings of this thesis can be summarized as follows. First, if the context of movement control allows the use of both feedback and feedforward cues, feedback cues are a reasonable first option. Second, when using vibrotactile feedforward cues, using low-level abstractions and supporting the interaction with other modalities can keep the information load as low as possible. Third, the temple area is a feasible actuation location for vibrotactile cues in movement control, including navigation cues and object selection cues with head turns. However, the usability of the area depends on contextual factors such as spatial congruency, the actuation device, and the pace of the interaction task