HCC: Medium: Collaborative Research: Surface Haptics via Tractive Forces

表面触觉，或在物理表面上创造虚拟触觉效果，是一个在人类中日益重要的话题。由于触摸屏的日益广泛使用，计算机交互变得越来越困难。触控是一种既优雅又令人抓狂的界面形式。它简洁而优雅：用户可以在没有鼠标或操纵杆干预的情况下进行选择或点击按钮或键。此外，触摸(尤其是多？（手指触摸）支持手势操作，比如滑动和扩展，这些操作都非常自然。然而，由于缺乏对自然触觉至关重要的触觉和动觉反馈，这令人抓狂。例如，在虚拟键盘上打字通常是一种视觉引导的狩猎体验。随意地啄对方的背？空格键。在这项研究中，pi将进一步开发一种新的表面触觉设备，称为xpad，它有望丰富触摸屏和触摸板界面的使用，为视力正常的和失明的用户。xpad之所以引人注目，是因为它们在指尖和普通玻璃片之间提供了可控的剪切力。通过控制剪切力以响应指尖位置的测量（可以使用各种现有技术获得），可以模拟大量的虚拟效果；例如，从一种状态切换到另一种状态的拨动开关（每种状态都是玻璃表面上的“势阱”，可以将手指拉到给定位置），以及易于追踪的轮廓。当前项目的核心在于系统工程，它将导致能够控制一个或多个指尖的力的实用和有效的设备，并在心理物理和应用？这些研究将教会我们如何最好地利用这些能力。xpad是一种复杂的动态系统，利用超声波振动来调节摩擦，使其与内径同步。平面振动来产生可控的力矢量。pi将解决在每个指尖单独控制力的挑战，生产具有大表面积的xpad，以及最大限度地减少能耗和可听噪声的产生。他们将使用“流行？”通过实验来寻找触觉原语，也就是说，人类感知系统可以在最小或没有感知负荷的情况下提取特征。pi将测量作为符号通道的表面触觉设备的信息传输能力。他们将探索感知系统将呈现给不同指尖的表面触觉特征“绑定”成一个有意义的、连贯的整体的能力。这些研究将定位pi为盲人调查一系列应用程序。更广泛的影响：盲人的计算机界面通常严重依赖语音，而语音必须连续地呈现信息。pi认为触觉表面可以增强语音。基于关键空间信息的界面。他们将学习数学表达式的编辑和阅读，在网页上定位关键内容，导航十字路口，以及使用谷歌地图等工具规划路线。此外，pi将发展为低？]成本xPaD开发工具包，在Internet上提供计划和代码，并根据这些材料开发一个高中充实单元。

Surface Haptics, or the creation of virtual haptic effects on physical surfaces, is a topic of rapidly growing importance in human?]computer interaction because of the increasingly widespread use of touch screens. Touch is at once an elegant and maddening interface modality. It is elegant in its simplicity: one can make a selection or tap a button or key with no intervening mouse or joystick. Moreover, touch (especially multi?]finger touch) supports gestures, such as swiping and expanding, which are satisfyingly natural. It is maddening, however, due to the lack of tactile and kinesthetic feedback that are so critical to natural touch. Typing on a virtual keyboard, for instance, is typically an experience of visually guided hunt?]and?]peck with liberal use of the back?]space key.In this research the PIs will further develop a new class of surface haptic devices, called xPaDs, that promise to enrich the use of touch screen and touchpad interfaces for sighted as well as blind users. xPaDs are notable because they provide controllable shear forces between the fingertips and an ordinary sheet of glass. By controlling shear force in response to a measure of fingertip position (which may be obtained using a variety of existing technologies), it is possible to simulate a huge array of virtual effects; examples include toggle switches that flip from one state to another (each state is a "potential well" on the glass surface that pulls the finger to a given location), and contours that can be easily traced.The heart of the current project lies in the systems engineering that will lead to practical and effective devices capable of controlling a force at one or more fingertips, and in the psychophysical and application?]based studies that will teach us how these capabilities may best be used. xPaDs are sophisticated dynamic systems that employ ultrasonic vibrations to modulate friction synchronized with in?]plane vibrations to produce controllable force vectors. The PIs will address the challenges of controlling force individually at each fingertip, of producing xPaDs with large surface area, and of minimizing energy consumption and audible noise generation. They will use the idea and methodology of "pop?]out" experiments to find haptic primitives, that is to say features the human perceptual system can extract with minimal or no perceptual load. The PIs will measure the information transmission capacity of surface haptic devices treated as symbolic channels. And they will explore the ability of the perceptual system to "bind" surface haptic features presented to different fingertips into a meaningful, coherent whole. These studies will position the PIs for investigating a set of applications for the blind.Broader Impacts: Computer interfaces for the blind often rely heavily on speech, which necessarily presents information serially. The PIs argue that a haptic surface can augment a speech?]based interface with critical spatial information. They will study the editing and reading of mathematical expressions, of locating key content on a web page, of navigating intersections, and of planning routes with tools such as Google Maps. In addition, the PIs will develop a low?]cost xPaD development kit, make the plans and code available on the Internet, and develop a high school enrichment unit based upon these materials.