Tactons

An investigation of multimodal interaction with tactile displays

 

 

The area of haptic (touch-based) HCI has grown rapidly over the last few years. A range of new applications has become possible now that touch can be used as an interaction technique. However, most current haptic devices have scant provision for tactile stimulation, being primarily kinaesthetic devices. The cutaneous (skin-based) component is ignored even though it is a key part of our experience of touch. Devices are now becoming available that allow tactile display, but little research has gone into how they might actually be employed at the user interface.

The innovative aspect of this research is to open up a new area of study into the cutaneous aspects of HCI and to investigate a range of tactile displays to improve the whole experience of computer haptics.The research has two strands. The first is an investigation of tactile cue design, the combination of tactile and kinaesthetic displays and combined tactile auditory multimodal displays. The second strand is the application of this knowledge of tactile interface design to the key application domains of accessibility to visualisations for blind users and mobile/wearable computer interfaces. In both of these areas interaction limitations mean that tactile displays can make a major contribution to usability.

There are three main areas of fundamental research to the project:

• Vibrotactile transducers can be used to encode abstract messages to the user via temporal parameters of the vibration signal.
• Pin Arrays are being used to display pictorial information to the fingertips and support non-visual direct manipulation and target acquisition.
• Cross-modal interaction investigates the relationship between audio and tactile cues.

About the Project

More detailed information about the background and goals of the project.

People

This work is being undertaken in the Multimodal Interaction Group, part of the Glasgow Interactive Systems Group. There are four full-time researchers involved in the project.

Demos

Demonstrator applications and software for the various aspects of the project.

Publications

An on-line archive of conference and journal publications from the project.

Events

Links to events related with the project.

Links

Other relevant projects at Glasgow, and some useful external links.