Haptic (tactual), portable, hands-free communication for body compliant interfaces

Abstract

There is a growing number of technical communication devices, not least wearables, which take use of the haptic sense(s). Then tactors (vibrotactile elements, heating elements, cooling elements, pressure generators, active indentators, electro-stimulating electrodes etc.), are employed. Haptic technologies are often limited to binary, point-wise actuation (one vibrator). However, as we discuss, in a semiotic sense, this can only generate a representamen that is symbolic, thus only also concerning symbolic communication. For a richer communication coming closer to what exists for visual and audial displays also haptic communication that is semiologically iconical and indexical are of interest. We here present a classification of tactile displays. For this, we make a distinction between the stimulus (the tactor characteristics and relationship to human reception) and the spatial arrangement i.e. the geometrical placement of tactors. For wearables, in the latter case, the human body shape and anatomy is taken into concern.From this, we build two (partially ordered) hierarchies, the stimulus richness hierarchy and the spatial ordering hierarchy, respectively.Combining these hierarchies gives a (partially ordered) hierarchy of tactile displays for the human body. We show that the informatical richness is fast growing with placement complexity. However, such displays need space. Hands and fingers are sensitive for haptic stimuli but are better reserved for active touch. Instead, other body parts might be used. For this, textiles are employed. We demonstrate a chairable i.e. a portable textile based haptic display for communication to (deafblind) humans, arena spectators etc., that can be applied to furniture, thus enriching the Umwelt of the users.

Keywords: Haptic displays, Haptics, Tactile, Haptic communication, Smart textiles, Deafblindness

DOI: 10.54941/ahfe1005498