Haptic experience and the design of drawing interfaces

Abstract

Haptic feedback has the potential to enhance users' sense of being engaged and creative in their artwork. Current work on providing haptic feedback in computer-based drawing applications has focused mainly on the realism of the haptic sensation rather than the users' experience of that sensation in the context of their creative work. We present a study that focuses on user experience of three haptic drawing interfaces. These interfaces were based on two different haptic metaphors, one of which mimicked familiar drawing tools (such as pen, pencil or crayon on smooth or rough paper) and the other of which drew on abstract descriptors of haptic experience (roughness, stickiness, scratchiness and smoothness). It was found that users valued having control over the haptic sensation; that each metaphor was preferred by approximately half of the participants; and that the real-world metaphor interface was considered more helpful than the abstract one, whereas the abstract interface was considered to better support creativity. This suggests that future interfaces for artistic work should have user-modifiable interaction styles for controlling the haptic sensation.

Multilayer Haptic Feedback for Pen-Based Tablet Interaction

“…While haptic cues work within the non-visual sensory channel, they also afford eyes-off interaction, another area that deserves follow-up. In addition, it will be interesting to assess to what extend the system can improve expressiveness [4,75].…”

“…Tactile or kinesthetic cues enhance the operation of tools that exhibit "elastic" properties. Such cues can enhance the experience and potentially also performance with such tools [4,75], as these cues provide indications of the realworld haptic properties that help the user understand how the tool performs while using it. We highlighted the potential of such cues in our art application, where the experience of different brush properties subjectively enhanced interaction.…”

“…Haptic features have been shown to improve user performance [40]. Tactile cues -which can substitute kinesthetic ones -can enhance performance [6], improving expressiveness [4,75], perceptual accuracy and nonambiguity [50]. However, not all haptic properties can be transferred during sensory substitution [35].…”

Haptic discrimination of different types of pencils during writing

“…Recently, researchers in haptic interfaces have used different sinusoidal patterns and frictions to simulate different pencil types, such as 2B and 3H. However, the haptic experience of artists who draw with the resulting interface did not yield the richness of real-world experience (Sulaiman et al 2010). This suggests that important physical aspects of the interaction between pencil and paper, which were not simulated, such as change of the tip of the pencil and the surface of the paper resulting in stochastic variations of force, may also be crucial in order to enhance the realism that users' experience.…”

Touch of the Eye

“…Research in haptic interface design has generally conceded that computational interfaces are advantaged by the extended facilitation offered by the ease, flexibility, and power of affective technologies [17,18,25,29] but these studies are generally focused on the interaction affordances offered by haptic feedback. As we have described in our model of expressive and reflective process, a technology of transference should be equally cognizant of feed forward applications of affect.…”