Exploring Material Experiences Across Haptic Technologies

IEEE WHC 2023 Workshop – July 10th, 09:00 – 12:30 CEST

Overview

Haptic technologies have long sought to simulate the tactile properties of materials for virtual or remote interactions. Although the engineering aspects of these technologies have been extensively studied, little is known about the sensory and experiential spaces they offer for design. The human experience of materials can extend beyond their immediate sensory attributes, such as roughness, to influence user emotion, and perceptions of one’s body, or encourage human expression, reflection, or action. This workshop aims to bring together haptic device creators, perception scientists, and interaction designers to explore and map the user experience of materials across various technologies. Workshop participants will rotate through 4-6 stations featuring natural and programmable materials and document their experiences through notes. These notes are then used to create and compare experiential maps, identify design gaps, and guide future engineering and design in haptics. For questions, contact hasti.seifi@asu.edu.

We have reached the maximum workshop capacity and, unfortunately, cannot accommodate more participants.

Register for Workshop

Program

  1. Introduction (9:00 – 9:30 am)
    • Workshop aims and structure (15 min)
    • Teaser talks for each station (15 min)
  2. Material Exploration (9:30 – 11:00 am): Workshop attendees will explore five “material stations” covering a range of natural and programmable haptic stimuli and discuss their experiences around the sensory, affective, associative, social, interaction, and body/self aspects of the materials.
  3. Coffee Break (11:00 – 11:15 am)
  4. Mapping Experiences in Groups (11:15 – 11:45 am): Each group creates an affinity map of their experiences and their relation to the haptic technologies.
  5. Overall Discussion (11:45 – 12:15 pm)
  6. Closing (12:15 -12:30 pm)

Organizers

Hasti Seifi is an assistant professor in the School of Computing and Augmented Intelligence at Arizona State University. At the intersection of haptics and HCI, she investigates the design process of haptic stimuli and people’s affective and cognitive schemas for haptic sensations. She has developed open-access haptic collections, authoring tools, and educational content LearnHaptics t facilitate the creation and adoption of haptics by designers and end-users. 

Ana Tajadura-Jiménez is an Associate Professor at the DEI Interactive Systems Group, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She leads the i_mBODY lab (www.imbodylab.com) focused on interactive multisensory body-centred experiences, at the intersection between the fields of HCI and neuroscience. She is currently Principal Investigator of the MagicOutFit and the BODYinTRANSIT projects, which investigate the design of sensorial technology to alter people’s body perceptions and drive positive changes in emotional and physical health in populations with body concerns.

Laia Turmo Vidal is an interaction designer and currently a postdoctoral researcher at i_mBODY lab, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Her research explores how interactive technologies can be designed and used to improve people’s body experiences, particularly in contexts of health and wellbeing. Her research interests include multisensory and wearable technology, embodied learning, social cooperation and the role of materials and materiality in embodied design processes.

Elena Márquez Segura is an assistant professor at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. She is a design researcher with a multidisciplinary background, including a Ph.D and Ph.Lic in Human-Computer Interaction at Uppsala University and Stockholm University (Sweden), master’s studies in Interactive Systems Engineering at KTH (Sweden), and a master’s and bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering at Universidad de Sevilla (Spain). She is also a certified trained instructor in several fitness practices, including aerial fitness.

Ricardo O. Nascimento is a Postdoctoral researcher in Human Experience and Materials at the Material Science Research Centre of the Royal College of Art. His research explores how new technologies challenge and enhance human perception with focus on on-body interfaces and hybrid environments.

Bruna Petreca is a Research Fellow in Human Experience and Materials at the Materials Science Research Centre of the Royal College of Art. She co-leads the Consumer Experience Research Strand of the UKRI Interdisciplinary Textile Circularity Centre (textilescircularity.rca.ac.uk), and is a Co-Investigator on the project EPSRC Consumer Experience Digital Tools for Dematerialisation. These projects are developing new forms of interaction and new methods for materials experience, to promote a closer connection between people and materials.

José Vega-Cebrián (they/them, he/him) is a movement and computing researcher-designer and a Ph.D. student in Computer Science and Technology at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. They are currently researching and developing Playful Wearables and Augmented Technologies for Body Experiences, Rehabilitation and Physical Training. Their background includes a Master’s in Interactive Telecommunications (ITP) from New York University Tisch School of the Arts and a Bachelor of Science in Telecommunications and Electronic Systems from Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México. They were a Creative Coding teacher in CENTRO de Diseño, Cine y Televisión (México) and a Computer Science teacher in the International Baccalaureate (IB) program in Tecnológico de Monterrey, Campus Ciudad de México.

Invited Demonstrations

Yasemin Vardar is an Assistant Professor at TU Delft (Netherlands). Previously, she was a postdoctoral researcher at the MPI for Intelligent Systems (Germany); she earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from Koç University (Turkey) in 2018. Her research interests focus on understanding human touch and developing haptic interface technologies. She received the 2021 NWO VENI Grant, the 2018 Eurohaptics Best Ph.D. Thesis Award, IEEE WHC 2017 Best Poster Presentation Award, and TUBITAK Ph.D. Fellowship; she was selected for the 2019 Sign Up! Career-building Program. She is currently a co-chair of the Technical Committee on Haptics.

William Frier received his PhD in Human-Computer Interaction from the University of Sussex and is now the Lead Haptics Researcher at Ultraleap. Since Ultraleap Ldt early days, he has been a key investigator in studying the perception of mid-air haptics which led to various patents, and publications in HCI and Haptic conferences. He has studied Electrical and Electronical engineering at ESIGELEC (France) and Intelligent System and Robotics at University Pierre and Marie Curie (France), making him a key person in the development and integration of modular ultrasound mid-air haptic devices for robotic applications and Human-Machine Interfaces. William is the recipient of a UKRI Future Leader Fellowship and an honorary researcher at the University of Bristol.

Gunhyuk Park is an Assistant Professor in the AI Graduate School at Gwangju Institute of Science and Technology in South Korea. He received his B.S. in Computer Science and Electrical Engineering and Ph.D. in Computer Science from POSTECH. Recently, he was a postdoctoral researcher with the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems. His research interests are on Haptics and VR, mainly understanding and modelling the human tactile perception and designing tactile devices. He’s been an associate editor of World Haptics and EuroHaptics conferences.