I-Corps: Haptic Annunciator System for Situational Awareness

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The proposed innovation will pioneer next-generation haptic devices and interfaces to enrich and enhance remote interactions within applications of gaming, remote communication, military use and assistive aids. Although gaming is targeted initially, a haptic belt immediately generalizes across diverse domains where augmented perception of those around us and objects of interest enhances and quickens awareness of our present situation. Moreover, the availability of a commercial haptic belt will open new vistas for research and development within research areas of human haptic perception, multimodal display design and interaction, human-centered multimedia computing and socio-behavioral computing.Commercial availability of the proposed innovation will be a catalyst for the development of assistive technologies that will positively impact the lives of individuals with sensory impairments (visual impairments, vestibular impairments) and perceptual impairments (prosopagnosia)- a market the team plans to eventually transition to after gaming. It will also significantly impact the general population, providing a novel communication channel with many uses from navigation and spatial orientation to augmented/virtual reality, and to the perceptual enhancement of togetherness, important for long distance relationships and families often separated by the travel demands of work. The availability of a haptic belt will also benefit component disciplines including psychophysics and psychology of haptics were access to a functional, scalable and reconfigurable haptic display will attract and motivate researchers exploring the sense of touch as a receptive channel.