Haptic Edge Display for Mobile Tactile Interaction

Abstract

Current mobile devices do not leverage the rich haptic channel of information that our hands can sense, and instead focus primarily on touch based graphical interfaces. Our goal is to enrich the user experience of these devices through bidirectional haptic and tactile interactions (display and control) around the edge of hand-held devices. We propose a novel type of haptic interface, a Haptic Edge Display, consisting of actuated pins on the side of a display, to form a linear array of tactile pixels (taxels). These taxels are implemented using small piezoelectric actuators, which can be made cheaply and have ideal characteristics for mobile devices. We developed two prototype Haptic Edge Displays, one with 24 actuated pins (3.75mm in pitch) and a second with 40 pins (2.5mm in pitch). This paper describes several novel haptic interactions for the Haptic Edge Display including dynamic physical affordances, shape display, non-dominant hand interactions, and also in-pocket "pull" style haptic notifications. In a laboratory experiment we investigated the limits of human perception for Haptic Edge Displays, measuring the just-noticeable difference for pin width and height changes for both in-hand and simulated in-pocket conditions.

Electrical machine for remote kissing, and engineering measurement of its remote communication effects, including modified Turing test

“…Several other types of actuators such as piezoelectric actuators, pneumatic actuators and shape memory alloy (SMA) actuators are also some popular choices for linear motion applications. Piezoelectric or ultrasonic actuators come in miniature packages, often used in tactile display systems or Braille devices (Kyung and Lee, 2009;Jang et al, 2016). They benefit from high precision, fast response, low power consumption and small footprint, but they typically have short strokes and low output force, and they require high driving voltage in the range of 50 V-200 V, hence they are not suitable for battery powered devices.…”

ClothSurface: Exploring a Low-Cost Prototyping Tool to Support Ideation for Shape Displays

“…It filters the dynamic affordance in the concept of shape-changing furniture for the visitors to the Milano Design Week. Haptic Edge Display [41] is another example of such a prototype, but in the context of mobile devices.…”

MobiLimb

“…For output, several approaches have been proposed, including using advanced vibration motors [65], additional screens [23] or shape-changing interfaces [34]. A notable advantage of many of these approaches is that they augment the back or the side of the phone, which preserves the efficiency of the I/O capabilities of the original device.…”

“…For instance, they can provide adaptive affordances, favor communication or increase user's enjoyment [2] Shape-changing mechanisms have been shown especially relevant for mobile devices. For instance, they have been used to increase performance [34] or to improve interaction or interpersonal communication [46,48,49]. However, while smartphones or tablets provide a ubiquitous platform to promote shape-changing interfaces, current technology tends to be bulky, expensive and to not fit the form factor of mobile devices [2], making difficult a wide adoption of this technology.…”