Enhancing personal communication with spatial haptics: Two scenario-based experiments on gestural interaction

  • Authors:

  • Jani Heikkinen;Jussi Rantala;Thomas Olsson;Roope Raisamo;Jani Lylykangas;Jukka Raisamo;Veikko Surakka;Teemu Ahmaniemi

  • Affiliations:

  • Human-Centered Technology, Department of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 589, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland;Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI), Department of Computer Sciences, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland;Human-Centered Technology, Department of Software Systems, Tampere University of Technology, P.O. Box 589, FIN-33101 Tampere, Finland;Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI), Department of Computer Sciences, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland;Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI), Department of Computer Sciences, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland;Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI), Department of Computer Sciences, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland;Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI), Department of Computer Sciences, University of Tampere, FIN-33014 Tampere, Finland;Nokia Research Center Tampere, Visiokatu 1, 33720 Tampere, Finland

  • Venue:
  • Journal of Visual Languages and Computing
  • Year:
  • 2009

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Abstract

Haptic gestures and sensations through the sense of touch are currently unavailable in remote communication. There are two main reasons for this: good quality haptic technology has not been widely available and knowledge on the use of this technology is limited. To address these challenges, we studied how users would like to, and managed to create spatial haptic information by gesturing. Two separate scenario-based experiments were carried out: an observation study without technological limitations, and a study on gesturing with a functional prototype with haptic actuators. The first study found three different use strategies for the device. The most common gestures were shaking, smoothing and tapping. Multimodality was requested to create the context for the communication and to aid the interpretation of haptic stimuli. The second study showed that users were able to utilize spatiality in haptic messages (e.g., forward-backward gesture for agreement). However, challenges remain in presenting more complex information via remote haptic communication. The results give guidance for communication activities that are usable in spatial haptic communication, and how to make it possible to enable this form of communication in reality.