Designing Haptic Interfaces to Uncover Gestural Patterns in Children

Children with sensory processing differences such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may have different gestural patterns compared to their neurotypical peers. However, the evaluation of sensory differences is complicated and subjective, especially when it\u27s related to the tactile sense. Haptic interfaces (i.e., tools that transmit information through touch) allow changing vibrotactile patterns to stimulate children\u27s tactile senses, affecting how children interact with the interface. Therefore, haptic interfaces can be used to collect data on how users interact with them and uncover their gestural patterns. However, it is unclear how to design active haptic interfaces vibration using touch (e.g., mobile phone), wearables (e.g., smartwatch), or ultrasonic (e.g., Stratos) to support the data collection of gesture interaction. As the first step in this work, we proposed the design of Feel and Touch, a haptic game that could be developed for different haptic interfaces, such as mobile, wearable, and ultrasonic. In future work, we proposed to develop the game in the three interfaces and evaluate their usefulness and effectiveness in collecting gestural data, especially for children with ASD. We would like to thank: Ivonne Monarca and Monica Tentori from CICESE Research center

Designing a Game for Haptic Interfaces to Uncover Gestural Pattern in Children

Haptic computing uses a variety of vibro-tactile patterns that affect touch-based interactions. Therefore, there is an opportunity to design haptic interfaces to collect, analyze and uncover gestural patterns in children, particularly children with sensory processing differences such as those exhibited by Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In this paper, using user-centered techniques, we select two vibro-tactile patterns to guide the design of Feel and Touch, a haptic game that could be develop for different haptic interfaces, such as mobile, wearable, and ultrasonic. Feel and Touch uses ramp and flat vibration patterns to mimic vibrations on spiders’ legs when building a web. Feel and Touch has two types of activities: structured ones, where children must either tap or drag as indicated, and an open-ended activity where they can freely interact with the game. We close by discussing untapped opportunities of haptic computing to understand differences in tactile processing