UIST 2010
By:
Olivier Bau, Ivan Poupyrev, Ali Israr, Chris Harrison.
- Olivier Bau is currently a Scientist at Disney Research in Pittsburgh. He has a PhD in Computer Science.
- Ivan Poupyrev is also a Scientist at Disney Research. He has a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Hiroshima, Japan.
- Ali Israr is a member of the Interaction Design team at Disney Research, and he has a PhD in Mechanics from Purdue University.
- Chris Harrison is currently a PhD student in HCI at Carnegie Mellon.
Hypothesis
The authors of this paper hypothesize that their electro-vibration based tactile feedback will enhance human - touch screen interaction thus opening up new applications for touch screens and just general improvement of touch screen use.
Methods
The authors of this test had users participate in three highly controlled psycho-physical studies so at to test the viability of their design along with coming up with improvements for their design. Along with the three psycho-physical studies they also had one subjective evaluation of their design.
For the subjective evaluation they had ten participants feel the touch screen at 4 different frequency levels and then asked to answer a few questions about what they felt.
The authors needed Absolute Detection thresholds along with discrimination thresholds. To get this information they used the psychophysical studies to get answers. To figure out the detection and discrimination thresholds the authors tested at five frequencies and went through them at a random fashion so as to figure out which frequency worked best.
For the absolute thresholds the authors set up a screen with a tactile stimulus showing up on a sections of the screen while the other section had no response. This alternated. As this was happening the amplitude and the frequencies were modified so as to figure out the precise value needed.
Results
For the subjective evaluation the users found the higher frequency higher amplification stimuli to be the smoothest while the low frequency low amplification was found to be rougher and stickier. Amplification's effect upon smoothness was dependent upon frequency.
The psychophysical studies provided the authors with the ideal range of frequencies and amplifications to use for their feed back on the electro-vibrations.
Contents
This paper referred to a large number of previous papers written by authors of this paper. They seemed to have found relationships between frequencies and forces required to work with each other and to thus optimise touch screens even further. They set up their experiments and design so as to revolve around safety and made sure no unsafe amounts of current could ever make it to the user.
Discussion
If such a touch screen feedback can be safely and cheaply built it would be spectacular. Perhaps a combination of this sort of a feedback along with other currently available feedbacks would allow for applications of touch screens where it is not currently possible. As discussed in class the shortcomings of virtual keyboards could be resolved using a combination of such feed backs. I was a little concerned about the safety of this set up, however if they limit the availability of current to the screen and can prevent spikes, then this should result in a fairly safe platform.
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