Haptics democratization: challenges and opportunities

Abstract

The sense of touch is an important means of communicating and exchanging information primarily between people and between people and the environment, from the very first years of life. Nowadays, researches and technology advances in different domains make use of touch, man-computer communication and interaction throughout immersive simulation environments being also facilitated and enhanced by the kinesthetic technology. The importance of haptic feedback for different applications is already a proved fact. However, it is still underrepresented in the everyday computer interfaces, mainly due to a current unfavourable compromise between price and user’s experience quality. That is, even if many haptic devices are available, they are either prohibitive in term of price, if provide high quality, or they are inexpensive and offer low realism haptic effects. Currently, there is no real intermediate device, and no device that can provide hardware upgrade according to users’ needs. In this context, this paper provides an analysis of existing haptic equipment, both prototypes and commercially available devices, and presents different approaches used in haptic-based scenarios. On this basis, a critical set of requirements for a new type of haptic device are inferred. It could represent an innovative and affordable solution for a larger range of potential users: engineers, physicists, trainers, designers, researchers, as well as hobbyists.