Sensory Perception & Interaction, Research Group

Investigating the design process of expressive affective haptic robot behaviors 

SPIN research in haptic notification and movement guidance spans a number of different project arches, as seen through associated publications.

Direct manual cues, such as touching an interlocutor's face while they talk, can enhance the intelligibility of their speech. We aim to investigate the feasibility of using vibrotactile feedback to enhance speech intelligibility in acoustically noisy environments. 

MacaronMix is an online, open-source tool for morphing haptic signals. Designers, researchers, and hapticians can use this tool to create and study haptic icons, and to develop new morphing algorithms. Link: http://hapticdesign.github.io/macaronmix/

Crowdsourcing can gather rapid feedback at scale, but how do we crowdsource a haptic prototype? Haptic proxies are visualizations and simplified phone vibrations that can be used to represent high-fidelity haptics in studies conducted using Mechanical Turk.

We develop machine learning models of affect using touch and biometrics (such as EEG signal, skin conductance, heart rate, etc) to support affective interaction with companion robots for health applications.

A wearable haptic notification system for speakers and session chairs.

People differ widely in how they perceive and want to use tactile signals. What kind of tools are needed to support them in customizing?