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VHP: Vibrotactile Haptics Platform for On-body Applications

Authors:

Artem Dementyev,

Pascal Getreuer,

Dimitri Kanevsky,

Malcolm Slaney,

Richard F LyonAuthors Info & Claims

UIST '21: The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

Pages 598 - 612

https://doi.org/10.1145/3472749.3474772

Published: 12 October 2021 Publication History

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Abstract

Wearable vibrotactile devices have many potential applications, including sensory substitution for accessibility and notifications. Currently, vibrotactile experimentation is done using large lab setups. However, most practical applications require standalone on-body devices and integration into small form factors. Such integration is time-consuming and requires expertise.

With a goal to democratize wearable haptics we introduce VHP, a vibrotactile haptics platform. It includes a low-power miniature electronics board that can drive up to 12 independent channels of haptic signals with arbitrary waveforms at a 2 kHz sampling rate. The platform can drive vibrotactile actuators including linear resonant actuators and voice coils. The control hardware is battery-powered and programmable, and has multiple input options, including serial and Bluetooth, as well as the ability to synthesize haptic signals internally. We developed current-based loading sensing, thus allowing for unique features such as actuator auto-classification, and skin-contact quality sensing. Our technical evaluations showed that the system met all our initial design criteria and is an improvement over prior methods as it allows all-day wear, has low latency, has battery life between 3 and 25 hours, and can run 12 actuators simultaneously.

We demonstrate unique applications that would be time-consuming to develop without the VHP platform. We show that VHP can be used as bracelet, sleeve and phone-case form factors. The bracelet was programmed with an audio-to-tactile interface and was successfully worn for multiple days over months by developers. To facilitate more use of this platform, we open-source our design and plan to make the hardware widely available. We hope this work will motivate the use and study of vibrotactile all-day wearable devices.

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Cited By

Huang BCai HRen SSang YCheng QDietz PWigdor D(2024)Demonstrating VibraForge: An Open-source Vibrotactile Prototyping Toolkit with Scalable Modular DesignAdjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3672539.3686764(1-5)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672539.3686764
Whitmore NChan SZhang JChwalek PChin SMaes P(2024)Improving Attention Using Wearables via Haptic and Multimodal Rhythmic StimuliProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642256(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642256
Messerschmidt MCortes JNanayakkara S(2024)CoTacs: A Haptic Toolkit to Explore Effective On-Body Haptic Feedback by Ideating, Designing, Evaluating and Refining Haptic Designs Using Group CollaborationInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2358460(1-21)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2358460
Show More Cited By

VHP: Vibrotactile Haptics Platform for On-body Applications
1. Human-centered computing
  1. Human computer interaction (HCI)
    1. Interaction devices

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cover image ACM Conferences

UIST '21: The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

October 2021

1357 pages

ISBN:9781450386357

DOI:10.1145/3472749

Editors:
Jeffrey Nichols
Apple, USA
,
Ranjitha Kumar
UIUC, USA
,
Michael Nebeling
University of Michigan, USA

Copyright © 2021 Owner/Author.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution International 4.0 License.

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New York, NY, United States

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Published: 12 October 2021

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UIST '21

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UIST '21: The 34th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

October 10 - 14, 2021

Virtual Event, USA

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Overall Acceptance Rate 561 of 2,567 submissions, 22%

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UIST '25

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The 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

September 28 - October 1, 2025

Busan , Republic of Korea

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Cited By

Huang BCai HRen SSang YCheng QDietz PWigdor D(2024)Demonstrating VibraForge: An Open-source Vibrotactile Prototyping Toolkit with Scalable Modular DesignAdjunct Proceedings of the 37th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology10.1145/3672539.3686764(1-5)Online publication date: 13-Oct-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3672539.3686764
Whitmore NChan SZhang JChwalek PChin SMaes P(2024)Improving Attention Using Wearables via Haptic and Multimodal Rhythmic StimuliProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3642256(1-14)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3642256
Messerschmidt MCortes JNanayakkara S(2024)CoTacs: A Haptic Toolkit to Explore Effective On-Body Haptic Feedback by Ideating, Designing, Evaluating and Refining Haptic Designs Using Group CollaborationInternational Journal of Human–Computer Interaction10.1080/10447318.2024.2358460(1-21)Online publication date: 7-Jun-2024
https://doi.org/10.1080/10447318.2024.2358460
Frisoli ALeonardis D(2024)Wearable haptics for virtual reality and beyondNature Reviews Electrical Engineering10.1038/s44287-024-00089-81:10(666-679)Online publication date: 25-Sep-2024
https://doi.org/10.1038/s44287-024-00089-8
Kim JShin HYoo JAvila RHuang YJung YColgate JRogers J(2023)Mechanics of vibrotactile sensors for applications in skin-interfaced haptic systemsExtreme Mechanics Letters10.1016/j.eml.2022.10194058(101940)Online publication date: Jan-2023
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eml.2022.101940
Ganis FVatti MSerafin S(2022)Tickle Tuner - Haptic Smartphone Cover for Cochlear Implant Users’ Musical TrainingHaptic and Audio Interaction Design10.1007/978-3-031-15019-7_2(14-24)Online publication date: 25-Aug-2022
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1007/978-3-031-15019-7_2

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