Grant: Discovery Grants Program - Individual

The proposed research program explores the concept of ubiquitous haptics. As wearable computing, the Internet of Things, and ubiquitous computing gain momentum, I foresee an increasing availability of haptic devices both on us and around us. I propose to explore the use of haptic feedback to enhance the user experience of emerging interactive systems as haptic capabilities thus become an integral but invisible part of the objects that we wear and those that surround us. I call this concept ubiquitous haptics, by analogy with ubiquitous computing's promise to make computing constantly accessible yet largely invisible. This research program is structured around three axes. The first axis explores the haptics of things, or the haptification of the objects that surround us. This axis for example explores haptifying the otherwise passive surfaces of handheld devices and everyday objects that surround us. The second axis explores embodied haptics, or the use of haptic feedback on the user's body. This axis for example explores opportunistically using a wearable haptic device as it is brought into an interactive context, e.g. a smartwatch in a VR simulator. The third axis explores the haptic symphony, or the coordination of the haptic feedback produced by multiple devices on us and around us to enable richer haptic experiences. This axis for example explores using a tactile sensation of flow or synchronization to make digital transactions and connections tangible. This research program is approached from two complementary perspectives. The first perspective investigates the design of haptic hardware in support of the three research axes, with emphasis on electrovibration, a promising technology that has received limited attention in the context of wearable devices and connected objects. The second perspective investigates the design of user experiences that exemplify the concepts of the haptics of things, embodied haptics, and the haptic symphony. The focus of this work is on enabling and prototyping novel haptic experiences and experimentally evaluating them using quantitative and qualitative user research techniques. This research program will demonstrate that haptic feedback has a significant role to play in current and future interactive systems, and will inform the design of interactive systems that leverage the availability of haptic devices on us and around us. This research program will establish Canada as a leader in haptic technologies and generate local expertise in the topic, which is increasingly recognized as critical to the success of virtual reality and other interactive experiences. The findings of this research will moreover impact Canada's high-technology sector in established and emerging industries such as video games, augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR), wearable devices, and the Internet of Things (IoT).