Reference Information:
Title: TeslaTouch: electrovibration for touch surfaces
Authors: Olivier Bau, Disney Research Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA and Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France; Ivan Poupyrev, Disney Research Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Ali Israr, Disney Research Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA, USA; Chris Harrison, Disney Research Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, USA
Presentation Venue: UIST '10 Proceedings of the 23nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology
Summary:
The purpose behind this project is to apply a different approach to providing haptic feedback through touch surfaces. The tactile feedback mechanism the researchers are proposing involves the principle of electrovibration. The researchers claim that this can be a method in which the user is able to feel virtual elements via touch sensation when paired with interactive displays. They refer to their technology as TeslaTouch.
The technology works by sandwiching a transparent electrode between an insulating surface that the user touches and a glass plate. The tactile stimulus is produced by creating sinusoidal waves that propagate through the touch surface at the point of contact. By modulating the frequency of these waves, different sensations can be produced to simulate things that are rough, smooth, etc. Triangular and square wave forms are also possible to produce.
Discussion:
I think there are a multitude of potential applications for this technology. One that I thought of that would be great would be an interactive encyclopedia where you could see an image of an object and then touch it to get a sense of what it feels like. Other applications can include games, where the tactile senses can be implemented to provide additional feedback to the user as they play. This could also be used to create training material for any number of trades. Things that would be useful to feel during training could be applied in this medium without there being any danger of injury.
Ultimately, if the surface could be applied over curved volumes, you could create an application in which a nursing student could practice giving a simulated person injections or other treatments prior to dealing with a real person. If you could apply the surface and give it the same consistent feeling as skin, you could give a reasonably accurate simulation of what it would be like for the nurse to deal with a real live person without having to have a real life person to be the guinea pig.
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