«Otogi Box»: a cubic haptic interface for presenting a story through tactile communication

Haptic technology provides users with an experience that is unattainable via audiovisual information alone. Researchers have previously attempted to synchronize tactile information with video to enhance the multimedia experience, although their studies were based on the assumption that visual information is present. Tactile stimuli usually act as additional information for a story and do not normally arouse people’s imagination regarding a story; a door opening, water dripping onto the floor, or someone walking across the floor is usually presented through visual information. This study proposes the “Otogi Box,” a cubic haptic storytelling interface using tactile stimuli. The haptic interface provides a whole new user experience, letting them feel the story unfold in their hands. The interface independently vibrates each of its faces based on the audio signals providing various touch sensations that fit a specific story. We present “Dwarf’s House” as a demo story, wherein users feel a dwarf realistically entering and exiting the box. For instance, the right face vibrates as if a door is opening when the dwarf opens the door on the right side of the house. The basic storytelling capabilities of the interface was tested through a user evaluation. The results revealed that the proposed interface could effectively present a simple story through tactile sense without any visual information, and enabled stimulation of users’ imagination in a unique manner.