DeSForM 2012: Learn to Make, Make to Learn
I’m now in Wellington (New-Zealand) for DeSForM 2012, the 7th International Workshop on the Design & Semantics of Form & Movement. This is a small gathering of designers and researchers sharing an interest for Interaction Design and issues of aesthetics, meaning and making. I attended the the workshop in 2010 and was impressed by the relevance of the discussions and considerations in relation to my own design inquiries.
The event was hosted by the Victoria School of Design. I presented my talk Learn to Make, Make to Learn: Reflections from 4 Sketching Haptics Workshops (PDF) during the second day. I think it was fairly well received. It was really nice to present right after Vicky Teinaki and her talk Informing Form: An Aesthetics of Touch. Vicky is pursuing a PhD on the how designers can develop a refined language of touch, so we definitely have some shared motivations!
Bits and pieces of March 2012 [updated]
TECHTILE toolkit, link and techtile.org
TECHTILE = TECHnology based tacTILE design. Best Demo Award at Haptics Symposium 2012. A simple but very elegant toolkit to discover and experience haptics.
Tactile Display With Directional Force Feedback, link
Nokia Patents Haptic Tattoo Technology, link
A lot of speculation and hype around this, but it is still interesting to see how the media/public is picking up on the idea.
Immersion HD Integrator, link
Lots of customs implementations of haptic effects from Immersion.
Game Controller with Embedded Skin Stretch Feedback from HEML Utah, link
As seen at Haptics Symposium 2012 in Vancouver.
Haptic steering wheel from AT&T labs, link
“An underlying thread of this research is, can we develop great haptic and tactile cues that users ‘get’ right out of the box?” Good question!
Cadillac Safety Alert Seat, link
Directional tactile sensation — vibrations of the driver’s seat bottom — to warn of crash threats while driving and parking.
Robot hand to give your videoconferencing the ‘human’ touch, link
Believable human touch factors: texture, temperature and sufficient grip force.
TU/e lecture: Designing Haptics
Here are the slides [PDF, 48 MB] from my Designing Haptics lecture with MA students in Eindhoven (TU/E) on February 27 2012. This introduction presentation was part of a week-long module titled Design for Intersubjectivity through Haptics with tutors/teachers Stoffel Kuenen (UID, Sweden) and Jelle Stienstra (TU/e, the Netherlands).
The first part of this presentation digs into the difference between sketching and prototyping, and how designers might be able to sketch with tech and haptic material. The second part explores haptics, the sense of touch, common haptic interfaces and uncover where/how designers can work with haptics. I gave this lecture form Canada over Skype and apparently the audio was choppy on their end of the atlantic. I hope it was understandable to some extent. Thanks to Stoffel for arranging this lecture, and I’m very curious to see what the students develop and build out of this module.
Bits and pieces of February 2012
Makeblock, link
An aluminum version of “Lego” for building robots and mechanical structures. No price yet. Looks interesting, especisally with the inside threaded slot design and adjustable components. Check out more details at http://makeblock.cc/features-of-makeblock
Haptic Design, Keynote Presentation. David Birnbaum, Immersion, link
Immersion HD Haptics, Immersion, link
Retrofitted Nexus S with piezo actuators, and demos: maracas and rolling ball, classics!
Audrey Braille Display, by David Pankhurst, link
Open Hardware Braille display, using an Arduino and laser-cut acrylic. Nice work.
Daily Haptics, from Marie Rouillon, material designer, link
Copy/paste from her site “As a textile designer, I am particularly interested in what we call the sense(s) of « touch ». – Which probably includes hundreds of different senses : our fingertips for instance can feel warmth, cold, pleasure, pain, pressure, and an infinite array of textures. – How sad is that we are losing our awareness of this plurality ? Moreover, the sense of touch is critical for human functioning at many different levels, from controlling the body to perceiving the environment. As our senses act just like muscles, if we don’t exercise them they lose strenght ! We might end up losing them if we lose our awareness of their importance.
`Daily haptics´ has emerged as a response to this insight, through my design, I am creating tactile experiences in order to reconnect people with tactility, and make them aware of this ability they fail to acknowledge those days.”
Haptics, Mobile Handhelds, and other “Novel” Devices, The Tactile Unconscious of Reading across Old and New Media, by Rachel Lee, link
The “Electronic Touch”, tv report on haptics at Immersion
More on the Haptics youtube playlist from FUTRS.com
The Cryoscope Haptic Weathervane, by Robb Godshaw, link
A haptic weather forecasting device. The Cryoscope shows the user exactly what to expect outside by haptically exhibiting exactly how cold or warm it is to be outside. The user simply touches an aluminum cube that has been heated or cooled to the appropriate temperature. The unit fetches weather data from the internet, and translates it to the cube physically, pumping heat in or out of the cube.
Aesthetics of Touch, blog, from Vicky Teinaki, link
“Finding designers’ language of haptic qualities”. Great posts related to hatpics, touch, making and more. Vicky is a PhD student from Northumbria University in the UK. Her personal site: http://vickyteinaki.com
Bits and pieces of January 2012
Haptics Technologies presentation from Texas Instruments
Good overview and interesting graphs.
Tactus, dynamic Tactile Layer, link
“What if buttons could morph out of the surface of your device? Tactus Technology has developed a new tactile user interface for touchscreen devices that does exactly that.”
Matias Tactile Pro 3 keyboards, link
Bring back tactile quality to keyboard. “Unlike other keyboards made today, each key is built on an individual Alps Mechanical Switch. They feel better, and you’ll type faster.” Ergo Canada article on mechanical keys switches vs other keyboard technology. Keyswitch force graph.
Haptic Interfaces References by Parisa Eslambolchilar from Swansea Univeristy (UK), link
Mostly old(ish) references, nevertheless a good collection of links and presentations on Haptics.
Arduino Body and Sensor Block, link
Project of enclosures for Arduino and different sensors. I like the exploration on simple and large connector for attaching sensors to the main box. I’m thinking of LittleBits on steroids!
The Videola by Nate Rudolph, link and video
Haptic interface for film editing, it brings back kinetic feedback from film strip editing (browse, splice, cut) to modern video editing software.
TinkerForge Toolkit, link
Modular and extendable open source hardware for electronic prototyping. It reminds me of Phidgets. Stacks, Bricks and Bricklets modules, USB-based, wireless option. Support for many programming language C/C++, C#, Python, Java
MEAM 625: Haptic Interfaces, grad level course at UPenn, link
This class provides a graduate-level introduction to the field of haptics, which involves human interaction with real, remote, and virtual objects through the sense of touch. Check the final projects.
Bits and pieces of December 2011
Mitsubishi Electric’s EMIRAI concept car interface, link
Introduction of shape changing buttons. Not exactly ground breaking, but it’s nice to see it being pushed toward mainstream.
Feel Screens from Senseg, link, video
By passing an ultra-low electrical current into the insulated electrode, Senseg’s Tixel™, the proprietary charge driver can create a small attractive force to finger skin. By modulating this attractive force a variety of sensations can be generated, from textured surfaces and edges to vibrations and more.
The Braille-It Labeler from MIT, link
Very interesting Blind-Lead Technology Initiative from MIT. A sure keeper for resources on making (simple) tech for blind people.
NOWNESS, link
Performance Artist Christine Sun Kim explores sonic media without the benefit of hearing. She finds how to make its presence more physical, to find greater dimensions of movement, and to make a personal connection beyond what most of us might find in the everyday sense. As she describes it to NOWNESS.
Lego Technic Idea Books: Fantastic Contraptions, Simple Machines, and Wheeled Wonders
This seems like an inspiring example of documenting mechanical contraptions and tangible project builds. I just ordered the three books, and can’t wait to explore them! Found via Evil Mad Scientist Laboratories.
CS277 – Experimental Haptics course at Stanford, link
Good educational resources + lectures for intro to haptics, from a CS perspective.
Workshop at Haptics Symposium 2012
Things will be busy but very exciting at the end of winter next year. Right after TEI 2012, I will be heading to Vancouver for the Haptics Symposium conference. The program and activities look amazing, and it celebrates 20 years of multidisciplinary research relating to the human sense of touch.
I am very fortunate to be part of a Panel Workshop organized by John Morrell. The title of the session is Tools and Techniques for Prototyping Haptic Interfaces.The other tutorial/workshop sessions look super interesting too. A very promising trip to Canada indeed!
Bits and pieces of November 2011
How to Make Fake Buttons Feel Real, link
MIT Technology review from researchers in Tampere, Finland, highlights that users prefer virtual buttons that have real-world buttons characteristics.
Haptic feedback design guidelines from Nokia, link
Nice table showing tactile feedback effects name + description. It also suggests how haptic feedback fits in multimodal notifications.
FingerFlux: Near-surface Haptic Feedback on Tabletops, from Media Computing Group at Aachen university, link
Presented at UIST’11.
Haptic Intelligentsia, Bringing Craftsmanship Into a Computerized Technology, from Joong Han Lee, link
Haptic interfaces presentation from Katherine J. Kuchenbecker, UPenn page
Haptic Hand Prototype – pluck pinch and scrub, youtube video
Prototype with a motorized slider to pluck a string model in PD.
The Beginner’s PID and Arduino PID Library, link
A very thorough introduction to PID control with Arduino. Nice details about loop speed and interrupts.
Designing Haptics in Mobile Applications
Join David Birnbaum, Immersion’s senior user experience researcher, for a discussion of what makes a compelling haptic experience and how to create one for your product.
Designing Haptics Studio at TEI 2012
Yippi, my Studio proposal for TEI 2012 has been accepted! I will be running this day long workshop with Stoffel Kuenen, PhD student at UID, and Ali Israr from Disney Research. The Studio program is pretty exciting this year, it’s great to be part of it. Here is the abstract for our Studio:
This studio proposes to tangibly explore the world of haptics to develop a greater understanding and sensitivity to this emerging field. The first part of the studio focuses on general knowledge about haptics, haptic and multimodal perception in humans, and key advances in actuator and sensor technologies to develop haptic interfaces. Numerous demos and testing platforms will be available to relate discussions with real haptic sensations. The second part of the studio aims to explore the various challenges and difficulties in designing haptic interfaces by directly building and sketching in hardware haptic interfaces. Participants will be invited to build their own haptic interfaces from various actuators, sensors and other building blocks. The studio aims to bridge the fields of haptics and design, and investigate various prototyping tools and approaches that can best support haptic design activities.
The Studio is limited to 20 participants and is free for all attendees, so register quick :-)
Bits and pieces of October 2011
ShapeShift, electro-active polymer (EAP) explorations, link
ShapeShift is an experiment in future possibilities of architectural materialization. This project explores the potential application of electro-active polymer (EAP) at an architectural scale. EAP offers a new relationship to built space through its unique combination of qualities. It is an ultra-lightweight, flexible material with the ability to change shape without the need for mechanical actuators. As a collaboration between the chair for Computer Aided Architectural Design (ETHZ) and the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Science and Technology (EMPA), ShapeShift bridges gaps between advanced techniques in architectural design/fabrication and material science as well as pushing academic research towards real world applications.
Surface Transducer available from Sparkfun, link
Haptics Technologies: Bringing Touch to Multimedia, book, link
Series: Springer Series on Touch and Haptic Systems, El Saddik, A., Orozco, M., Eid, M., Cha, J. 1st Edition., 2011, XV, 218 p. 87 illus.
This book is different from any other book that has looked at haptics. The authors treat haptics as a new medium rather than just a domain within one of the above areas. They describe human haptic perception and interfaces and present fundamentals in haptic rendering and modeling in virtual environments. Diverse software architectures for standalone and networked haptic systems are explained, and the authors demonstrate the vast application spectrum of this emerging technology along with its accompanying trends. The primary objective is to provide a comprehensive overview and a practical understanding of haptic technologies. An appreciation of the close relationship between the wide range of disciplines that constitute a haptic system is a key principle towards being able to build successful collaborative haptic environments.
What is Haptics? from Texas Instruments (TI), part 1, part 2
The DRV8662EVM Evaluation Module (EVM) is a fully-differential, high-voltage piezo actuator driver that provides quick response time for single layer and multi-layer piezo actuators. The DRV8662 drives piezo loads up to 200V differentially using an adjustable integrated boost converter. The evaluation module contains the DRV8662 piezo haptics driver, a programmable MSP430, and passive components for complete evaluation.Evaluation board available for 99 USD at http://www.ti.com/drv8662evm-pr
iOS 5.0 Custom Vibration Alert
iOS 5 Features: Vibration Patterns. Haptics (although quite basic) slowly making their way into mainstream products!