Defense Abstract:

Human tactile perception is better in the glabrous skin of the fingertips compared to most other locations on the body, but haptic (touch feedback) devices mounted on the fingertips prevent users from handling physical objects and hinder finger tracking during interaction with virtual or augmented reality environments. Relocation of haptic feedback from the fingertips to the wrist has the potential to enable haptic interaction with virtual environments while leaving the fingers free. My work addresses the design, perception, and effectiveness of wrist-based feedback.

In this talk, I will first present my work on dynamic virtual environments and user studies to test human task performance and identify best practices for mapping fingertip interactions to relocated haptic feedback on the wrist. Second, I will discuss the characterization of soft, wearable 3D-printed devices designed to be worn on the wrist and fingers for multi-degree-of-freedom haptic interactions. Finally, I will explain psychophysical studies I performed to quantify human sensitivity thresholds for stimuli from wrist- and finger-worn devices and compare perception at the wrist, index finger, and thumb in multiple degrees of freedom. This work enables the design of next-generation virtual environments augmented with relocated haptic feedback.