Exploration of Ultrasound based haptic interaction on a multi-touch surface

多点触控桌面，比如微软的Surface，现在随处可见。用户可以在酒店大堂和其他公共场所使用这些系统，只需很少的指导，也不需要佩戴或用手或身体握住侵入式传感器。无需修饰的手和手指就可以“走着使用”，消除了人与技术之间的障碍，鼓励自发使用。当前交互界面的主要缺点之一是用户可以触摸对象，但他们无法感觉到它们。在许多应用中，用户可以通过“基于感觉”的触觉反馈来增强他们的触觉。例如，医疗应用、虚拟培训和建模应用需要用户的精确控制，触觉反馈可以帮助用户有效地执行这些任务。这些应用程序展示了在交互式应用程序中使用视觉反馈增强触觉反馈的好处。通常，视觉空间与力反馈是断开的，用户需要长时间的训练才能习惯于移动数字对象并在一小段距离外观察显示器上的互动。在这个提议中，我们将研究使用超声波换能器通过空气提供“可感觉”的反馈。人类手上的皮肤可以感受到由一系列精心校准的换能器产生的超声波压力波，其方式与立体声系统中响亮的低音扬声器明显相同。超声波在人的听觉范围之外，因此提供无声的，通过空气的触觉反馈。我们将利用这项技术在多点触控水平表面提供多点触觉反馈。该团队由来自计算机科学系的Sriram Subramanian博士、Mark Marshall博士和Jason Alexander博士、布里斯托尔大学机械工程系的Bruce Drinkwater教授和格拉斯哥大学计算机科学系的Stephen Brewster教授组成。该团队在人机交互（HCI）， HCI硬件的新集成和超声波传感器方面的研究得到了国际认可。微软研究院（剑桥）和XMOS将作为项目合作伙伴，为项目提供宝贵的资源和支持。

Multi-touch tables, such as Microsoft Surface, are now widely available. Users can walk-up and use these systems in hotel lobbies and other public settings with very little instruction and with no need to wear or hold intrusive sensors with their hands or body. The ability to 'walk-up and use' with unadorned hands and fingers removes the barrier between human and technology, encouraging spontaneous use. One of the primary disadvantages of current interactive surfaces is that users can touch objects, but they are unable to feel them. There are a plethora of applications where it is beneficial for the user to have their touches augmented with 'feel-based' haptic feedback. For example, medical applications, virtual training, and modelling applications require precise control from the user-haptic feedback can aid the user in effectively performing these tasks. These applications demonstrate the benefit of augmenting haptic feedback with visual feedback in an interactive application. Often, the visual space has been disconnected from the force-feedback, requiring a prolonged training period for the user to become accustomed to moving a digital object and watching the interactions a small distance away on a monitor. In this proposal we will investigate the use of ultrasound transducers to provide 'feelable' feedback through air. The skin on a human hand can feel the ultrasonic pressure wave produced by a carefully calibrated series of transducers, in much the same manner that is apparent from loud sub-woofers on a stereo system. Ultrasound waves are outside the human's range of hearing and so provide silent, through-air haptic feedback. We will use this technology to provide multi-point haptic feedback on the surface of a multi-touch horizontal surface.The team consists of Dr. Sriram Subramanian, Dr. Mark Marshall and Dr. Jason Alexander from the computer science departments and Prof. Bruce Drinkwater from the Mechanical Engineering department of the University of Bristol and Prof. Stephen Brewster from the Computer Science department of the University of Glasgow. The team is internationally recognised for its research in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), novel integration of hardware for HCI, and Ultrasonic sensors. Microsoft research (Cambridge) and XMOS will serve as project partners and offer valuable resources and support for the project.