Sensory Perception & Interaction Research Group

University of British Columbia

Full citation: 
MacLean, K., Enriquez, M. (2003)., "Perceptual Design of Haptic Icons," in Proceedings of Eurohaptics, Dublin, Ireland, 2003.
Abstract: 
The bulk of applications for haptic feedback employ direct rendering approaches wherein a user touches a virtual model of some “real” thing, often displayed graphically as well. We propose a new class of applications based on abstract messages, ranging from “haptic icons” – brief signals conveying an object’s or event’s state, function or content – to an expressive haptic language for interpersonal communication. Building this language requires us to understand how synthetic haptic signals are perceived, and what they can mean to us. Experiments presented here address the perception question by using an efficient version of Multidimensional Scaling (MDS) to extract perceptual axes for complex haptic icons: once this space is mapped, icons can be designed to maximize both differentiability and individual salience. Results show that a set of icons constructed by varying the frequency, magnitude and shape of 2-sec, time-invariant wave shapes map to two perceptual axes, which differ depending on the signals’ frequency range; and suggest that expressive capability is maximized in one frequency subspace.
SPIN Authors: 
Year Published: 
2003