Haptics

Expanding Haptic Workspace for Coupled-Object Manipulation

by Ryan Pavlik

ASCA_McArdle_Photography at the Chiasm

by James McArdle

Presented at EXTREMELY CLOSE AND INCREDIBLY SLOW
ASCA International Workshop 2012, 28-30 March 2012

“Immobile inside the train, seeing immobile things slip by”; thus is the theme of the immobile world of the traveller... more “Immobile inside the train, seeing immobile things slip by”; thus is the theme of the immobile world of the traveller in the train introduced by Michel de Certeau in “Railway Navigation and Incarceration”. In contemplating this transfixion, he adapts Merleau-Ponty’s figure of the Chiasm, applying it to the carriage window and the steel rail to account for the way immobility crosses between near and far, between speed and stasis.

This paper identifies the photographic surface as a further manifestation of the binding chiasm to ask ‘What if the photographer were to relinquish habitual cyclopean and mercurial powers and to choose instead slow down the ‘capture’ and to peer around the ‘frame’? Recent experiments in contemporary photomedia deal with being (noun and verb), and moving, in space. Artist-researchers Marian Drew, Daniel Armstrong and the author, will be shown to be re-evaluating their inheritance; the ‘static’ image. Each has discovered new means by which to resolve the ‘figure and ground’ and the coincidence of environment and human subjects, at, within and through the ‘Chiasm’, by extending exposure and interpenetrating relations of near and far.

An observer who sees the world at a traveling point of observation is ‘everywhere at once’ (Gibson 1979). It is a sign of mind and attention that both visible and the tangible co-exist in and interpenetrate both the observer and the space in which they move. What is proposed by Marcel Merleau-Ponty via the Chiasm; a ‘double and crossed sublation of the visible in the tangible and of the tangible in the visible’, is verified in these artistic experiments.

A review of haptic spatial abilities in the blind

by Allison Connell Pensky

Haptic Palpation for Medical Simulation in Virtual Environments

by Sebastian Ullrich

Ullrich S & Kuhlen T: “Haptic Palpation for Medical Simulation in Virtual Environments”, In IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics. 2012, April. 18(4):617-625. IEEE Press. Best Paper Award.

Palpation is a physical examination technique where objects, e.g., organs or body parts, are touched with fingers to... more Palpation is a physical examination technique where objects, e.g., organs or body parts, are touched with fingers to determine their size, shape, consistency and location. Many medical procedures utilize palpation as a supplementary interaction technique and it can be therefore considered as an essential basic method. However, palpation is mostly neglected in medical training simulators, with the exception of very specialized simulators that solely focus on palpation, e.g., for manual cancer detection. In this article we propose a novel approach to enable haptic palpation interaction for virtual reality–based medical simulators. The main contribution is an extensive user study conducted with a large group of medical experts. To provide a plausible simulation framework for this user study, we contribute a novel and detailed interaction algorithm for palpation with tissue dragging, which utilizes a multi–object force algorithm to support multiple layers of anatomy and a pulse force algorithm for simulation of an arterial pulse. Furthermore, we propose a modification for an off–the–shelf haptic device by adding a lightweight palpation pad to support a more realistic finger grip configuration for palpation tasks. The user study itself has been conducted on a medical training simulator prototype with a specific procedure from regional anesthesia, which strongly depends on palpation. The prototype utilizes a co–rotational finite element approach for soft tissue simulation and provides bimanual interaction by combining the aforementioned techniques with needle insertion for the other hand. The results of the user study suggest reasonable face validity of the simulator prototype and in particular validate medical plausibility of the proposed palpation interaction algorithm.

MicPen: Pressure-Sensitive Pen Interaction Using Microphone with Standard Touchscreen

by Sungjae Hwang

This paper introduces MicPen, a low-cost pressure-sensitive stylus pen interface for standard touchscreen displays... more This paper introduces MicPen, a low-cost pressure-sensitive stylus pen interface for standard touchscreen displays that uses a microphone to estimate the amount of pressure applied to the pen. This is achieved by filtering and analyzing the acoustic signal generated when the tip of the pen is rubbed on the touchscreen. The advantage of this approach is that it is inexpensive, reliable and suitable for mobile interaction because it does not require mechanical parts to sense the input pressure. Results from a user study shows that the participants recognized five out of ten different pressure levels with perfect accuracy, and nine out of ten with minimal error.

Ethnography of a paper strip: The production of air safety <2008>

by Joerg Potthast

Science, Technology & Innovation Studies 4, 1, 47-68

Why does air traffic control still rely on paper control strips? Is paper safer? This question has been dealt with... more Why does air traffic control still rely on paper control strips? Is paper safer? This question has been dealt with before, and responses have pointed out that "paper has helped to shape work practices, and work practices have been designed around the use of paper" (Harper & Sellen). The present contribution tries to further specify these claims. At first, the use of paper as a medium of representation in the course of dealing with critical situations will be discussed. Drawing on ethno-graphic fieldwork carried out in two European Upper Area Control centers, practices linked to the puzzling persistence of the paper strip are then captured along with different types of critical situations. Extending the observation of practices to meso- and macro-levels, it can be shown that paper strips are multiply embedded. They help to stabilize cycles of practices, the permanent reproduction of which is critical to air safety.

Vision-Based Innovative Network Games

by eiman kanjo

Sensing the Rhythms of Everyday Life

by Terra Edwards

Passive internet-based crane teleoperation with haptic aids

by Alejandro Fernández Villaverde

A Fernández Villaverde, C Raimúndez, A Barreiro (2012) International Journal of Control, Automation, and Systems, 10(1):78-87

Crane operation is a challenging task, due to the combined problem of obstacle avoidance and load swing suppression in... more Crane operation is a challenging task, due to the combined problem of obstacle avoidance and load swing suppression in underactuated conditions. This paper presents a human-machine interface that increases the operator’s perception of a gantry crane’s workspace. With this aim, a virtual environment resembling the workspace is connected with a haptic device. This allows the user to receive not only visual but also tactile feedback, thus increasing maneuvering safety. Additionally, this capability is integrated in a teleoperation setup, adopting a passivity-based control approach that guarantees overall stability. This includes also the design of controllers by means of the IDA-PBC method. Experimental results carried out with a laboratory crane show its feasibility for internet-based teleoperation and demonstrate the improvements on the system performance.

Huggy pajama: a parent and child hugging communication system

by Owen Noel Newton Fernando

Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent... more Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system enables parents and children to hug one another through a novel hugging interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing pajama connected through the Internet. The hugging device is a small, mobile doll with an embedded pressure sensing circuit that is able to accurately sense varying levels of the range of human force produced from natural touch. This device sends hug signals to a haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer. It features air pressure actuation to reproduce hug.

The HAPTIC TOUCH Toolkit: Enabling Exploration of Haptic Interactions

by Miguel Nacenta

Authored by: David Ledo, Miguel A. Nacenta, Nicolai Marquardt, Sebastian Boring and Saul Greenberg.
TEI 2012

In the real world, touch based interaction relies on haptic feedback (e.g., grasping objects, feeling textures).... more In the real world, touch based interaction relies on haptic feedback (e.g., grasping objects, feeling textures). Unfortunately,
such feedback is absent in current tabletop systems. The previously developed Haptic Tabletop Puck (HTP) aims at supporting experimentation with and development of inexpensive tabletop haptic interfaces in a do-it-yourself fashion. The problem is that programming the HTP (and haptics in general) is difficult. To address this problem, we contribute the HAPTICTOUCH toolkit, which enables developers to rapidly prototype haptic tabletop applications. Our toolkit is structured in three layers that enable programmers to: (1) directly control the device, (2) create customized combinable haptic behaviors (e.g., softness, oscillation), and (3) use visuals (e.g., shapes, images, buttons) to quickly make use of these behaviors. In our preliminary exploration we found that programmers could use our toolkit to create haptic tabletop applications in a short amount of time.

Breaking it down is better: Haptic decomposition of complex movements aids in robot-assisted motor learning

by Julius Klein

IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems & Rehabilitation Engineering (TNSRE) Special issue on "Motor skill learning and neuro-rehabilitation"

[IN PRESS] [IN PRESS]

River multimodal scenario for rehabilitation robotics

by Domen Novak

Declerck, G. (2011). L’insoutenable pesanteur de l’être. Pesanteur physique et pesanteur ontologique dans la pensée de Heidegger

by Gunnar Declerck

Complete reference:
Declerck, G. (2011). L’insoutenable pesanteur de l’être. Pesanteur physique et pesanteur ontologique dans la pensée de Heidegger. Revue philosophique de Louvain, vol. 109, n°3, pp.489-525, DOI 10.2143/RPL.109.3.2131168.

Résumé
La finalité de ce texte est de questionner l’usage que fait Heidegger, du début à la fin de son œuvre, du... more Résumé
La finalité de ce texte est de questionner l’usage que fait Heidegger, du début à la fin de son œuvre, du champ lexical de la pesanteur pour exprimer le rapport du Dasein à l’être, rapport pensé sous la figure de la prise en charge. Après avoir rappelé le contexte et les passages où Heidegger mobilise ce champ lexical, et en avoir proposé une interprétation dans l’orbe de la conceptualité de l’analytique existentiale, nous tenterons de mettre à jour les raisons qui ont pu le pousser, en quelque sorte à son insu, à placer le rapport du Dasein à l’être sous le signe du phénomène de pesanteur. Nous chercherons à ce titre à montrer, depuis une description phénoménologique de l’expérience de la pesanteur physique (poids du corps propre aussi bien que poids des objets) que cette convocation du phénomène de poids pour dire l’épreuve ontologique constitutive du Dasein, loin d’être anodine, est motivée par la structure même de ce phénomène – phénomène où le Dasein est conduit à expérimenter de manière privilégiée le « qu’il est et a à être » où se réalise originairement sa compréhension de l’être.

Abstract
The aim of this text is to question the use made by Heidegger, from the start to the end of his work, of the lexical field of weight to express the relationship of Dasein to being, a relationship thought under the modality of taking on a load. Having recalled the context and the passages in which Heidegger mobilises this lexical field, and having proposed an interpretation in the sphere of the conceptuality of the existential analytic, we shall attempt to bring to light the reasons that may have led him, somehow unwittingly, to place the relationship of Dasein to being under the heading of the phenomenon of weight. We shall seek in this regard to show from a phenomenological description of the experience of physical weight (weight of the body proper as well as the weight of objects) that this convocation of the phenomenon of weight to express the ontological experience constitutive of Dasein, far from being anodyne, is motivated by the very structure of this phenomenon – a phenomenon in which Dasein is led to experience in a privileged way the “that he is and has to be” in which his understanding of being is originally realised. (translated by J. Dudley)

Haptic interaction stability with respect to grasp force

by Janez Podobnik

Pick to place trajectories in human arm training environment

by Janez Podobnik

Robot-assisted evaluation of coordination between grasp and load forces in a power grasp in humans

by Janez Podobnik

Evaluation of upper extremity robot-assistances in subacute and chronic stroke subjects

by Domen Novak

Force-feedback micromanipulation with unconditionally stable coupling

by Gentiane Venture

A comparison of three nonvisual methods for presenting scientific graphs

by Patrick Roth