Haptics: Touch Command
Haptics—the sense of touch for communication purposes—in action!Copyright 2016 Polytechnic Institute of NYU
Students experience haptic (the sense of touch) feedback by using LEGO® MINDSTORMS® EV3 robots and touch sensors to emulate touch feedback recognition. With four touch sensors connected to LEGO EV3s, they design sensor attachments that feel physically distinguishable from each another. Then students answer questions and communicate their answers to the EV3 by pressing the touch sensor that is associated with the right multiple-choice answer letter. Haptics becomes essential when students must use the EV3 sensors to answer the next set of questions without the aid of their vision. This challenges them to rely solely on the tactile feeling of each unique touch sensor attachment that they created in order to choose the correct peripheral slot. Students also learn about real-world applications of haptics technology.
With the advancement of touchscreen technology in mobile devices, haptics are increasingly common as a means of communicating feedback to users that commands are received. For example, Android tablets (among other devices) notify users when their commands are received by screen movement accompanied by vibration. The physical feedback of the device's vibration clarifies the consequences of a user's actions. Engineers have incorporated haptics into many other applications such as video game enhancement, medical rehabilitation and training (using haptic feedback during electronic surgical simulations so medical students can differentiate between how certain tissues feel in the body before ever cutting open a live person), and improved accessibility or convenience for the blind (a proposed application in which text is converted to braille for the reading of emails, messages and text from a touchscreen, a process that otherwise would require extra peripheral equipment).
After this activity, students should be able to:
- Define haptics and give examples of devices that use haptics technology.
- Explain how haptics works at a basic level, without going too deep into the physics behind the technology.
- Describe the impact haptics has in the medical field and the future applications that may arise from the use of this technology.