Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis

This qualitative exploratory research paper presents a Manifesto for Digital Social Touch in Crisis - a provocative call to action to designers, developers and researchers to rethink and reimagine social touch through a deeper engagement with the social and sensory aspects of touch. This call is motivated by concerns that social touch is in a crisis signaled by a decline in social touch over the past 2 decades, the problematics of inappropriate social touch, and the well documented impact of a lack of social touch on communication, relationships, and well-being and health. These concerns shape how social touch enters the digital realm and raise questions for how and when the complex space of social touch is mediated by technologies, as well the societal implications. The paper situates the manifesto in the key challenges facing haptic designers and developers identified through a series of interdisciplinary collaborative workshops with participants from computer science, design, engineering, HCI and social science from both within industry and academia, and the research literature on haptics. The features and purpose of the manifesto form are described, along with our rationale for its use, and the method of the manifesto development. The starting points, opportunities and challenges, dominant themes and tensions that shaped the manifesto statements are then elaborated on. The paper shows the potential of the manifesto form to bridge between HCI, computer science and engineers, and social scientists on the topic of social touch

ViSecure: A haptic gesture authentication system

Conference of 10th International Conference on Haptics: Perception, Devices, Control, and Applications, EuroHaptics 2016 ; Conference Date: 4 July 2016 Through 7 July 2016; Conference Code:177719International audienceSecure authentication is an important part of our everyday interaction with computers. While the traditional password or pin-code still dominates this area, there has been a move towards more novel forms of authentication including gestures and biometric finger printing. In this paper we present the use of a wearable device with localized vibration as a method for authentication that is both secure and discreet and which removes the need to memorise pin codes or passwords. An initial user study found that participants were open to this kind of device and interaction.

INTACT: Instant interaction for 3D printed objects

Conference of 34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2016 ; Conference Date: 7 May 2016 Through 12 May 2016; Conference Code:121620International audienceThe INTACT platform enables the instant addition of interactivity to any 3D printed object, with the aim of enriching and enhancing the interaction design process. This is achieved by eliminating the need to incorporate potentially obstructive sensor technologies. Using a system of force sensing combined with a digital model of the object the system is capable of detecting a single touch, its position and the corresponding force of that touch anywhere on the object

Strike a pose: Directional cueing on the wrist and the effect of orientation

Conference of 8th International Workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction, HAID 2013 ; Conference Date: 18 April 2013 Through 19 April 2013; Conference Code:99726International audienceMany wearable haptic devices have been developed for providing passive directional cues, in the form of belts or back displays but these systems have so far failed to make an impact in the public domain. One other potential solution is a light, discrete and aesthetically acceptable vibrotactile bracelet. However, contrary to these other systems, the wrist is subject to rotations, therefore a controversial locus for vibrotactile feedback in a navigational context. This paper presents a set of experiments aimed at both determining the basic feasibility of using this kind of bracelet and to examine to what extent the orientation of the user's wrist affects their perception of directional cues both in static and mobile conditions. It was found that changes in orientation have little negative effect overall, distraction being more of a concern

Exploring interactions with a flexible tactile device for multi-context interaction

Conference of 34th Annual CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2016 ; Conference Date: 7 May 2016 Through 12 May 2016; Conference Code:121620International audienceThe use of touch-based interaction now dominates the market as it enables a more natural form of interaction with our devices, but is largely limited to flat and rigid surfaces. The increasing availability of flexible interactive technologies offers us the opportunity to design devices that adapt to their context of use and opens up new avenues for the design of interaction on a flexible device for 'multi-context interaction'. In this paper, we present initial work in this direction through an explorative pilot study. Interestingly, the participants were rather influenced by standard tactile input gestures and envisioned using these for interaction while taking advantage of the flexible properties of the device for adaptation instead, either to the context or the object to which the device is attached (e.g. pressure input, positioning of the device and deformation)

Methods for user involvement in the design of augmented reality systems for engineering education

International audienceThe paper presents a number of user involvement methods which can be used in the design of Augmented Reality (AR) systems for engineering education. One of the characteristics of these technologies is that future users do not always have a thorough knowledge of AR and its applications in engineering education. Furthermore, the technology is in search of applications, and there are few existing HCI guidelines for AR interfaces. In this sense, the design and usability evaluation of these systems are real challenges. We present methods which are suitable in this context (e.g. scenarios, field studies, activity analysis, and formative evaluations of prototypes). We also discuss their advantages and limitations when designing AR systems for engineering education from a user-centred perspective

"Smiles, kids, happy songs!": How to collect metaphors with older adults

Conference of 32nd Annual ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, CHI EA 2014 ; Conference Date: 26 April 2014 Through 1 May 2014; Conference Code:105087International audienceIn the context of an ageing society, vibrotactile wearable devices can open up new avenues for assisting older adults in their daily lives. They can provide information and yet free the hands, ears and eyes, which can be crucial to safety. However, designing intuitive informational vibrotactile messages for and with the older adults has seldom been investigated. This paper describes an initial study involving older adults in the design of vibrotactile messages for a pedestrian navigation application. The design is based on metaphors or everyday analogies in an attempt to strengthen the link between the pattern and its associated meaning. The study presents the method to collect these metaphors, focusing on the difficulties encountered with such an 'abstract' task and the steps taken to adapt it to the audience. As a result, a number of metaphors were collected, in line with what matters for older adults (e.g. kids, health)

Shape recognition and selection in medical volume visualisation with haptic gloves

Volume-visualised medical images are translucent objects that are hard to perceive accurately. Yet 2D image segmentation is used to distinguish some parts of the volume and make them more understandable. Many studies have proposed haptic feedbacks to find organs inside the body, but it is not easy to feel the shape of the part with using those devices. We realised that better results can be achieved via devices with more than one-point feedback. We describe a method that makes a user feel the shape in the same way we perceive the shape of an object in a dark room with the help of our tactile sense. Hence modern haptic devices such as “HaptX” and “Manus VR” gloves help us to imagine organ shapes by controlling the amount of forces on each fingertip. Another method is also proposed that guides a user to select intended parts of a volume, which is a fast manual segmentation tool but in an immersive VR or AR environment with a much more convenient interface

Identifying Tactors Locations on the Proximal Phalanx of the Finger for Navigation

International audienceVibrotactile stimulation has been investigated to provide navigational cues through belts, vests, wrist-bands and exotic displays. A more compact solution would be the use of a ring type display. In order to test its feasibility, a user-centered experiment is conducted. The ability of participants to identify cardinal directions and inter cardinal directions by vibrotactile stimulation on the proximal phalanx is investigated. The results indicate that participants achieved 96% accuracy for cardinal directions and 69% accuracy for cardinal plus inter-cardinal directions using a static stimulation. The identification rates of dynamic stimulation are lower than that of static stimulation