Haptic cues: texture as a guide for non-visual tangible interaction

Abstract

Tangible User Interfaces (TUIs) represent digital information via a number of sensory modalities including the haptic, visual and auditory senses. We suggest that interaction with tangible interfaces is commonly governed primarily through visual cues, despite the emphasis on tangible representation. We do not doubt that visual feedback offers rich interaction guidance, but argue that emphasis on haptic and auditory feedback could support or substitute vision in situations of visual distraction or impairment. We have developed a series of simple TUIs that allows for the haptic and auditory exploration of visually hidden textures. Our technique is to transmit the force feedback of the texture to the user via the attraction of a ball bearing to a magnet that the user manipulates. This allows the detail of the texture to be presented to the user while visually presenting an entirely flat surface. The use of both opaque and transparent materials allows for controlling the texture visibility for comparative purposes. The resulting Feelable User Interface (FUI), shown in Fig. 1, allows for the exploration of which textures and structures are useful for haptic guidance. The findings of our haptic exploration shall provide basic understanding about the usage of haptic cues for interacting with tangible objects that are visually hidden or are in the user's visual periphery.