Experience Sense of Touch Through Haptics

Human Computer Interaction (HCI) is considered to be the intersection of computer science, cognitive science, design and several other fields of study, and is a multidisciplinary field centered on people’s interactions with computers in various respects. Practitioners and researchers endeavor to understand people’s behaviors and actions in order to make computers more usable and receptive to people’s needs. People interact with machines using their physical senses including sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch. Wikipedia notes, “Senses are the physiological capacities within organisms that provide inputs for perception” [1]

The importance of touch in HCI
One way of interacting with a device is by using the sense of touch. “The touching is not limited to feeling, but it allows interactivity in real-time with virtual objects” [1]. In HCI, Haptics is a field that allows people to interact with computers. A haptic device gives people a sense of touch with computer generated environments, so when virtual objects are touched, they seem real and tangible [2]. Haptic devices are capable of measuring bulk or reactive forces that are applied by the user; it should not be confused with touch or tactile sensors that measure the pressure or force exerted by the user to the interface.


“Haptic technology, or haptics, can be defined as feedback technology that takes advantage of a user's sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to the user” [1]. Haptics are implemented through different types of interactions. These interactions can be categorized into the different types of touch sensations a user can receive—force feedback, tactile feedback, and proprioception (or kinesthesia) [3]. For instance, you can change a conventional mouse into a haptic mouse by adding force feedback capability, or, in other words, a haptic mouse reacts to responses for users to make a decision.



Examples of where it is used and who benefits from haptic device
In recent years we have seen how the sense of touch has become an integral part of how we experience things, both physically and emotionally [2]. Haptic devices can be used in different applications including computers, video games, mobile consumer technologies, research, medicine, and robotics.

Most of us are familiar in using touch screen technology on cell phones; a person can interact with electronic visual display using the sense of touch. It is said to be a haptic touch screen when it provides users with true tactile feedback that supports a multitude of touch and gesture effects [4].

Haptic devices provide greater potential for people who are visually challenged. Haptic technology can assist a blind person in making right decisions while interacting with technology using the feedback provided to them. A recent study conducted at “VI Fit” [5] provides evidence for how a haptic device can benefit blind users.



Product Designers can benefit from free form modeling on products. Three-dimensional detailed shapes can be formed for manufacturing if input devices that give touch feedback relating to the "surface" they are modeling allowing faster and more natural workflow than with traditional methods [5]. These technologies could help designers creating video games with rich rendered Three-Dimensional environments that can be hard to navigate on a two-dimensional screen.

An experienced designer can create interfaces through which the end user can feel the product before purchasing the product. Designers can provide a greater experience for end user allowing them to feel the product with their own hands, for example, when an end user wants to buy a luxury watch such as Breguet. Haptics is an emerging field in HCI and many researchers around the globe are working on providing a physical experience for virtual objects.


Thanks to Vinay Dixit for reviewing and Nathan Engbrecht on proof reading

References:
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haptic_technology
[2] http://home.novint.com/novint/whatis3dtouch.php
[3] http://electronics.howstuffworks.com/gadgets/other-gadgets/haptic-technology2.htm
[4] http://www.pacinian.com/applications
[5] http://www.sensable.com/products-freeform-systems.htm

Rapid prototyping for tangible user interface designs

As designers we apply participatory approaches of engaging users and stakeholder in the design process for better design outcomes. Using white board, affinitive mapping, brainstorming, wire-framing, prototyping etc. in order to arrive at functional specifications are common practices required in product development. These activities not only serve the purpose of design but also to communicate ideas and concepts to various stakeholders.

The idea is to understand if conventional design techniques would stand complexities around designing Tangible User Interfaces (TUI). Let’s explore in detail. TUI is a user interface, where a user interacts with digital information through physical representation.  Designing for TUI brings various challenges to designers primarily due to physical representation of digital information and variety of complex interactions available. Watch this video for a better understanding. 

For designing a TUI system, a designer needs to consider physical objects, physical actions, interactions and physical environment because everything is an interface that interacts. More than just complexities around TUI itself, there are challenges with respect to effective communication of design concepts to stakeholders for their buy in. This leads to a few questions to our use of conventional design approach. How effective our conventional design approached would be for TUI designs?  Should we adapt to rapid prototyping technique? Would rapid prototyping help designers conceptualize and communicate ideas better.

Consider a brainstorming session; we bring a mix of designers, developers, implementers, managers, stakeholders and users. Brainstorming brings ideas to the table in order to solve a design problem.  During such sessions, the effectiveness of communication is maintained by making use of whiteboards, post-its, paper and pen. Mostly the systems we design are for two-dimensional space. But when it comes to design for three-dimensional spaces, we should be using three-dimensional objects. We know it is important for people to express their views and have effective communication to develop innovative ideas. Rapid prototyping with three-dimensional object would be major drive to bring people into action.

In designing for TUI, it seems important for designers to use three-dimensional objects for prototyping. By introducing such dimensions communication and engagement of groups can be increased. This could help designers to visualize the space that they are designing for. And in addition, designers can investigate on affordance and metaphors used of the group to formulate the thought process. This approach can produce positive outputs during discovering phase of a product development lifecycle and to frame them during definition phase.

Special Thanks to
Vinay Dixit for editorial hands
Tangible Bits for sharing the video

Lets have a moment of Gratitude to our God

We are the children of the highest God. Let us be grateful and have an attitude of gratitude. God has given us the things that we need. Hence, sometimes we complain that he has not given enough. The very breath that we breathe is the gift of God. We are to praise him and worship for Who He Is.

Many times we don’t see what is around us. When God opens our spiritual eyes, we see many things that are hidden from us. Well, today as I was spending some time with God, Lord showed me a lady running into a dark open space in the night, well I was thinking why she is running into the wilderness in the night. To my confusion, I found that she was there because her family did not have sanitation facility. She is person like you or me. She might have desires to live a life with all the material blessings that we posses.

Well, what can we do for them? We could possibly help them by providing them proper sanitation. Many times we do not even think about the people that are hurt more than us. But, we often try to complain to God on smaller level. Well, who are we to complain about not having this or that? I encourage you my brethren, to step in the moment of faith and praise Him for very blessing that he is showered us at all the moments of our lives.

I want every one of us to reflect back on ourselves. Have we utilized the things that God has given us to the maximum level? Have we sacrificed our time, to meet a friend who is hurt, have we helped a homeless who does not have food to eat, have we? Maybe we have helped them. All that I want to tell you that we should not complain on that we do not have, but be thankful to the things that we have. Many a times we complain, if we had enough money we could have helped or we had enough time then we could have done this or that. And often we pray to God to meet our needs first. Well, there is nothing wrong in praying for us. Indeed we should do that. But we should be thankful God for very blessing that he has given us.

Lets start with thanking God with what we have and lets not worry about the things that you do not have. But praise him for the bread you eat, praise him for the bed you sleep, praise him for your bathroom, and praise him for every details that He has given you. Praise him for your eyes to see this post and read it. And above all let us be grateful to Lord who has scarified his life for us.

Lets join our hands to prayer for the people who are poor, suffering and hurting in our world. Lord helps us and uses us for the glory of God. Grace and peace to the all of us and lets worship him that he has clothed us with his righteousness. Let us pray that we would be stewards for the gifts from above.

Blessings of God

Playful children and creative thinking

Children are a great source of creativity when it comes to games and entertainment. Children are interesting to be learned and studied. Kids seem to be ignorant, but they are very creative than most adults are. They can turn anything into a game. Here you can see the pictures of children playing. I found them pretty interesting, I observed them playing some sort of a game for a while and it gave me insights on the creativity of design.

Setting up the rules
They played this game for about an hour or so. To my amazement, I found that they were following some protocols or rules for this game. It seemed to me that players played the game with predefined game rules. This game consisted of two teams, one on one side and two boys and on the other side. And a baby girl was accompanying them, but did not participate in the game. As I think, the girl is about 18 or 19 months old and probably can’t participate. The players are trying to hit the other player with the sack as seen in the picture. And there was some kind of point system based on the hitting other team. They have made boxes for each team; a team member is not allowed to step outside the square. And if you step outside of the square, if so you lose some points.

If I were to design the game, I will probably relate to the pillow fight that I had with my brother in my childhood. Well, I do not know, how these children made this entertaining game for them. What kind of strategic planning they did? Did they relate to some other game? What is the metaphor they used here? Are there any similar games available? Are they following some framework? Many questions cross my mind.

Creativity with fewer resources
These children are not receiving healthy food, medical facility, not even having proper sanitation facilities, and not having proper shelter. I would doubt that they would have ever played with a toy. They lack the resources that we have in our daily lives. But they do not lack in creativity. I felt that they are amazing designers. They made a game with fewer resources they got.

We also work with fewer resources such as time and money. Our client creates our world wherein we are set to deliver them enjoyment based on the resources they have provided. A designer’s puts on creative hat to provide innovative solutions. We perform strategic planning to determine how we go about doing our activities. We further set rules on how a system should look, what kind of functionality it should possess, how it should behave, we try to determine user goals, usability goals and many more. We provide creative designs to our customer and provide them greater satisfaction and better experience.

Children may not be thinking any of these things that we think about. All that they want is to enjoy the time that they have. As these children, we should thrive to produce creative product in a new way, or invent something that does not exist or reapply an existing process or product into a new or different domain. Hence, creating better experience and happiness to our customers as well for us.

Thanks to Vinay Dixit for the reviewing of this post.