10th December 2011

Human Robot Interactions – Haptic interfaces

Brief history and trends on user interfaces

Over the past decade, Interactions with devices were mainly through acquisition interfaces with mouse, joystick, keyboard, or remote sensors, “Restitution” interfaces mostly through screens and system states. Then came the integration of acquisition and restitution with combined interfaces such as touch screens, force feedback controllers...

Today the major trends in user interfaces are: - Integration of touch in multi-points

- Integration of inertial motion (Wiimote) or motion capture (Kinect) - Tangible Interfaces (gesture recognition, SAR - Spatially Augmented Reality) - Simple, intuitive and natural interfaces (eg voice and dialog recognition)

Kinect has changed computer vision The recent introduction of a low cost camera delivering in-depth images (Kinect, developed by PrimeSense and marketed by Microsoft for Xbox) caused a small revolution in the field of computer vision. Under certain constraints, ie in indoor environments and limited to distances less than 10-12 meters, this material provides in-depth images of sufficient quality to recognize gestures made in a cooperative environment from the user.

Research continues to move towards intuitive and simple interactions

The research on the interfaces is geared towards more intuitive and simple interactions and can be grouped into three main themes:

- Tangible and multimodal Interfaces (textures and not touch, for example,) - Contextual Interfaces (adding Artificial Intelligence - eg MIT Assist Sketch, intelligent conversational agents on the web ...) - Emotional Interfaces (fun, personalized, ...)

Affective Haptic interfaces

Many researchers in Human robot interactions work on haptic interfaces

Every objects goes TOUCH

Touch plays an important role in human social life. It communicates positive or negative emotions and is one emotional intensifier of interpersonal communications. Tactile interfaces and devices could let users enhance their emotional-communication abilities by adding a new dimension to communication. Interpersonal relationships and the ability to express empathy grow strongly when people become emotionally closer.

Haptic interfaces are one of the next big trends

There has been recent research on intelligent systems providing emotionally immersive experiences for online communication with rich haptic channels, and in the development of robotic companions that can simulate the emotional response through the haptic channel (vibration pattern, temperature, etc.), voice and gestures. Such robots can have positive therapeutic effect on the patients and improve their socializations.

Affective Haptics has a great potential to impact on the online environments that facilitate contact with others remotely, sense of telepresence, product design, healing and treatment of the mental, emotional, social and physical aspects of the person (e.g. depression, anxiety, autism, etc.).

It’s all about Emotions

Affective Haptics is the emerging area of research which focuses on the design of devices and systems that can elicit, enhance, or influence the emotional state of a human by means of sense of touch. Human emotions can be easily evoked by different cues, and the sense of touch is one of the most emotionally charged channels.

There is a range of physical triggers for and manifestations of our emotions, including: (1) physiological changes (e.g., heart beat rate, body temperature, etc.). Each emotion is characterized by a specific pattern of physiological changes. The emotion can be induced through the manipulation of false feedback of the physiological signals. (2) physical stimulation (e.g., tickling). The affect is evoked in a direct way. (3) social touch. Social touch (e.g., hug, handshaking, stroke, pat, squeeze, etc.) influences mood and provide a sense of physical copresence in computer‐mediated systems. (4) emotional haptic design (e.g., shape of device, material, texture).

Affective Haptics is a wide interdisciplinary area, strongly related to such fields as multi‐modal interfaces, affective computing, neuroscience, psychology, mediated communications, telepresence, and of course robotics.

Learn more on Human Machine Interactions at INNOROBO

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