HCC: Medium: Collaborative Research: Hand-Mounted Tactile Displays for Haptically Identifying Shape and Dexterous Manipulation

University Of Utah, Salt Lake City UT

Investigators

Abstract

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5). Force-feedback, or haptic, applications in medicine, engineering, and design are increasing in popularity and importance based on the advantages of haptic devices in providing intuitive and realistic interactions with virtual environments. However, current haptic devices lack integrated tactile feedback, which communicates contact and sliding between fingertips and an object. Although a variety of tactile displays have been developed, most are large bench-top devices and are impractical to place at a user?s fingertips while exploring a virtual object. Simpler, more compact devices will solve this problem and provide a means to create a more compelling virtual touch experience. The overarching objective of this research is to significantly improve the quality of touch feedback obtained with haptic interfaces by improving both the mechanical interface to virtual worlds and the supporting computational methods that generate touch sensations. These advances will be informed by and validated through a progression of human subject experiments that will culminate in two application-based evaluations in the areas of medical bone palpation and virtual assembly. These case studies will quantify the improved dexterous manipulation and exploration capabilities resulting from this research.