Tactile control: gaining experience. Advanced tactile and touch technology Tactile drive

The overwhelming majority of people communicate with computers through sight and hearing. However, in some cases, the most appropriate sense would be touch. Computer manufacturers are recognizing this and increasing the use of haptic solutions.

Tactile (from the Greek word for "grasp" or "touch") reflects the ability of the equipment to output a signal that we can feel through touch, rather than see or hear. A haptic signal is usually a kickback or vibration. How strong is the impact? “Small machines will produce 3-4 Newtons [300 to 400 grams], and some larger ones over 30 N,” says Ben Landon, tactile equipment specialist at SensAble Technologies Inc.

Application of tactile technologies

There are two main areas of application of tactile technologies: the virtual reality (including games and medical training) and remote control (or telecontrol). While the most obvious use of haptic technology is computer games, similar projects exist in industry. For example, tactile technologies provide users with the ability to touch and feel computer design and engineering objects in CAD systems and the like. Such tools provide feedback to software applicationwhere the design is in progress, and the fully electronic steering and brakes react quite realistically to the actions of operators or drivers, eliminating the need for massive and complex direct connections or systems with power.

SensAble Technologies' Omni arm supports six-degrees of freedom positioning and force feedback

Tactile technologies used in medicine are a way to protect the patient from medical errors, they provide "virtual" training for inexperienced personnel. Tactile medical training systems reproduce the sensation of immersion of a needle or peritoneoscope with amazing realism and allow you to see the results on the screen, and at the same time hear the patient complain if something is done wrong. Such devices can be used for dental procedures and much more.

“There is some risk involved in the training of doctors today,” said Tom Anderson, president of Novint Technologies. “During the first 50 live patient procedures, they learn.” Novint has epidural and dental simulators that have received positive feedback from users. Levine, vice president and general manager of industrial and gaming technology at Immersion Corp., says that about 800 of his company's vascular simulators are now in use to teach students how to insert the IV needle.

Tactile technology is also being used in the development of medical implants, says Bob Steingart, president and chief operating officer of SensAble Technologies Inc. Computed tomography data comes in the form of voxels (three-dimensional volumetric pixels). SensAble equipment uses the same format. “Imagine a person with a hole in the skull,” Steingart explains. “You should start with a model obtained with a CT or MRI scanner. The goal is to get a prosthesis that will fill that hole. Using our voxel system and virtual filler, a model of the skull too will consist of voxels - you can get a very well-fitting synthetic body part, and most importantly, very quickly. The output is usually fed to a device that quickly creates a prototype, and in some cases to a milling machine. "

“Tactile technology can also be used to improve the presentation of data,” notes Landon of SensAble, “allowing the user to navigate an entire sea of \u200b\u200bdata (such as seismic imaging of rocks) using additional funds perception. You have not only color and time, but also force to help you define the nature of the data. "

Buttons, mice, joysticks

Perhaps the simplest example of tactile technology is dial knobs such as those used to tune a radio. Equipping such a handle with an engine and a brake, you can achieve different types fixation, support and even shock absorption. And all these characteristics can be changed as needed.

Tactile mice support recoil or vibration, or both as a reaction software on user actions. They are used in a wide range of applications, from games to physical therapy, and the use of a tactile mouse as a computer input tool for blind people is being investigated. There is one problem when using a tactile mouse. It consists in the fact that the mouse must have some means of tracking its absolute position; now they use axes or threads connected to the warp for this.

Reverse robotics: virtual manipulators

In the virtual three-dimensional world, tactile technologies correspond to “robots in reverse.” A robot allows the virtual world (software) to manipulate real objects. A tactile device allows a person to manipulate virtual objects and feel them as if they were real.

Touch screen equipped with electromagnetic drives

For example, a user can grasp a manipulator (some systems use a glove or "ring") connected to a bracket system.

Tactile devices can have three degrees of freedom (3CS), which allow you to feel the X, Y and Z axes, or 6 degrees of freedom (6CS), which are also sensitive to rotation and tilt. The number of degrees of freedom reflects the number of parameters to be changed. The system senses the position of the handle and transmits the appropriate recoil and vibration to the user through built-in motors and braking systems. When the cursor hits a virtual object, the operator feels resistance, which can be hard (for a solid object), soft, or elastic. If necessary, the handle can vibrate to mimic, for example, the sensation of a person driving the pen over an uneven surface. Tactile gloves can be used in physical therapy to help patients who have had a heart attack regain strength and improve body functions.

Researchers at the Toehashi University of Japan have studied the possibility of using tactile joysticks to control cranes to prevent collisions. Some organizations are developing systems for tactile feedback for surgical robots (which are actually remote controlled). Nanotechnologists are trying to integrate haptic devices into scanning electron microscopes to provide a sense of touch when manipulating nano-objects.

Feedback touch screens

More recently, tactile technology has begun to be used in the manufacture of touch screens. Conventional touchscreens allow the operator to act on any point on the screen surface, and tactile technologies make it possible to really feel it. Press the button and you will feel (and often even hear) click. Virtual buttons can be of any size or shape and can be found anywhere on the screen. The type of reaction to touch can also vary.

In December 2005, Volkswagen AG was licensed to use Immersion's haptic technology in car dashboards. Instead of just feeling the hard surface of a virtual control panel, drivers feel the buttons retract and release, just like real buttons and switches. Users who were offered a choice between tactile and non-tactile touchscreens showed a strong preference for tactile options, Levin said, and if they had only one option, they chose that one.

The sense of touch can be recreated in several ways. Probably the most direct would be to build whole line movable pins on the screen so that the surface actually takes the desired shape. While this approach is effective, it is complex and expensive. A simpler approach is to place electromagnetic actuators in the corners of the screen that will control the movement of the outer surface of the touch screen (see diagram). Research has shown that the critical parameter is not distance, but acceleration. According to the NEMA standard, the offset can be from 0.1 to 0.2 mm.

While tactile technology is gaining more acceptance in games and training simulators, the expansion of industrial applications has been slower. One of the factors that will contribute to the expansion of the application of this technology in industrial equipment is the simplification of the task of integrating tactile technologies into interfaces.

Most tactile technology companies offer a range of software interfaces (API) for various applications of these technologies and other software to facilitate development. Immersion Corp is working on a versatile kit consisting of a small circular panel, a set of actuators and an instruction manual. The panel is pre-programmed with tactile effects, any others can be additionally loaded and saved to flash memory. SensAble Technologies also offers a variety of tactile aids for its equipment.

The decline in cost will also increase the demand for haptic technology. In the lower price range is Novint's three DOF Falcon, which retails for $ 150-200. Although this device is designed for everyday use, experience has shown that some consumer electronic products have entered the industrial and commercial sectors with little or no change. And if they are produced and sold in retail quantities, prices can be very attractive. When it comes to reliability, Novint Anderson says the product “is designed for people to knock on it, they also want it to run continuously for a long time, especially when they play it. video games ".

SensAble's Phantom Omni - a six-degree-of-freedom "arm" attached to a base that can sit on a desktop - costs about $ 2,400 with the software package. In terms of touchscreens: Immersion displays up to 19 "are available, the price of a haptic feedback device is roughly the price of a touchscreen.

While tactile technology is far from perfect, it is already clear that they have a promising future in the industrial arena. While regular mice are likely not to disappear, despite the fact that Novint named one of its models Falcon after a bird of prey that feeds on mice, it may turn out that they are not the only ones able to perform such functions.

We will look at four companies that are developing touch technologies that are directly related to tactile communication and touch displays.

People are immutable. We instantly become dependent on our mother from the moment we are born. As a child, we discover the world through touch. As we mature, we touch our loved ones, our children, family members and friends to show our affection. We are expecting something in return, some form of feedback that will let us know that the message has been received.

However, over the years we have become addicted to haptic technology, we experience haptic feedback through our game consoles, our tablets, and our smartphones. This mechanical response makes gadgets a little more personal, a little smarter than they actually are. Current and future haptic technologies are making our connection with gadgets even more personal, transforming what was considered science fiction into everyday life.

LaboratoriesFujitsu

As a first tactile solution, consider the work of the Fujitsu lab, which uses ultrasonic vibrations to convey tactile sensations, reducing friction between the touchscreen and the user's finger. By inducing supersonic vibration on the touchscreen surface, the technology creates a layer of high pressure air between the screen surface and the user's fingertip. This technique reduces friction, thereby creating a floating effect.

Presumably, this effect will quickly drain the battery of the device, but this is not the case when the laboratory reports that it has developed a technology that can be used effectively within mobile devices... In order to make the tactile communication "tangible" using Fujitsu Labs technology, short cycles between high and low friction are created in response to information about touching the panel with a finger and displaying information on the screen.

Fujitsu and Fujitsu Laboratories continue to expand their range of tactile solutions with a view to commercialization in fiscal 2015.

Vivitouch 4D Sound

For this solution, the company uses electroactive polymer technology to print electrodes onto an extremely thin piece of polymer film invented by the company. This film, which starts moving when current is applied, is inserted into the drive module, which in turn connects to the on-ear headset. The film responds to sound in real time, conveying a physical sensation that can be felt by the sensitive areas of the skin surrounding the listener's ear.

This technique means faster response times with less power consumption compared to traditional feedback technologies. This technique also means that the physical sensation fully allows the sound to be conveyed without the need to raise the volume to a level that could damage the eardrum. The solution also has absolutely no effect on the eardrum, uses only a minimal amount of battery power, adds no sensitive weight, and runs silently, although it moves right next to the ear.

Vivitouch has already licensed this technology to Mad Catz and Ableplanet.

Technology

The company's tactile method uses a special layer that replaces the top layer of the device (glass, lens) in the optical compartment of the tablet, and matches the thickness of the previous tablet component. Mounted above the touch sensor, the patented "tactile layer" uses micro-fluids, which are small fluid channels that spread throughout the layer. This liquid will expand into the top polymer layer to create physical buttons. A small tactile controller is connected to the tactile layer and controls the state of the buttons.

Implementation

With this technology, users will be able to press or just rest their fingers on the liquid buttons in the same way they do with physical keyboard buttons, taking touch technology to the next level. And when the buttons are disabled — for example, when the user has finished entering a website URL — the buttons retreat back into the screen. You will not find any evidence of their existence, the tablet will have a sleek, seamless and flat touch screen with full viewing area.

The company has already licensed this technology to several OEM and ODM partners. The names were not released.

Immersion

Finally, we have Immersion's TouchSense technology, which we have known for a long time, because it provides tactile communication. mobile phones, automotive systems, gaming, medical and consumer electronic products. The 3000 series is designed for use with a single tactile actuator, the 4000 series for multiple tactile actuators, and the 5000 series uses a piezo actuator for high definition tactile communication. The company was founded in 1993 and worked with Microsoft in 1997 to integrate its technology into the DirectInput API for DirectX 5.0.

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