Seungjae Oh

Programmable Haptic Button

Augmenting Physical Buttons with Vibrotactile Feedback for Programmable Feels
(ACM UIST 2020)

Abstract

Physical buttons provide clear haptic feedback when pressed and released, but their responses are unvarying. Physical buttons can be powered by force actuators to produce unlimited click sensations, but the cost is substantial.

An alternative can be augmenting physical buttons with simple and inexpensive vibration actuators. When pushed, an augmented button generates a vibration overlayed on the button’s original kinesthetic response, under the general framework of haptic augmented reality.

We explore the design space of augmented buttons while changing vibration frequency, amplitude, duration, and envelope. We then visualize the perceptual structure of augmented buttons by estimating a perceptual space for 7 physical buttons and 40 augmented buttons. Their sensations are also assessed against adjectives, and results are mapped into the perceptual space to identify meaningful perceptual dimensions. Our results contribute to understanding the benefits and limitations of programmable vibration-augmented physical buttons with emphasis on their feels.

Publication

Figure

hw Haptic Button Hardware

rendering Acceleration and force profiles visualizing the effects of vibration augmentation on physical button click

PerceptualSpace 2D perceptual space of the 47 augmented and physical buttons

Adjective Adjective pairs regressed into the perceptual space (left), and semantic words regressed into the space (right)

Conclusion

This paper has explored a design space of a haptic augmentation technique that enables modulation of the feel of a real physical button by providing vibrotactile feedback. For a demonstration of the concept, we designed a large number of augmented buttons for one base physical button by varying the frequency, amplitude, envelope, and duration of vibration. Two user experiments were conducted, and their results offer the 2D perceptual space and two primary perceptual dimensions that quantify the perceptual effects of vibrotactile button augmentation in a metric space. Design guidelines for effective button augmentation are also summarized.

Contribution

  • Chaeyong Park: Implementation (HW & SW), Experiment, Experimental Design and Analysis, Graphics, and Video
  • Jinhyuk Yoon: Implementation (HW)
  • Seungjae Oh: Experimental Design and Analysis
  • Seungmoon Choi: Director