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.