A Haptic Parameter Exploration Method for Force Feedback Devices

Touch sensation called ¿haptic¿ interface attracts increasing attentions from many researchers as a way for providing a new interaction modality. Integrating the haptic interface with traditional audio-visual communication channels has a potential ability to create more sophisticated human computer interaction (HCI) method and application systems. One big hurdle for utilizing the haptic interface is to design appropriate touch feelings presented in the system. It requires the optimization of various parameter values for presenting the realistic touch feelings through the specific devices. We designed and implemented a device independent method enabling users to easily design various haptic effects (touch feelings) without any special knowledge and technical skills. We implemented a haptic effect design system targeted at using the PHANTOM ^TM force feedback device based on the method. We also conducted an experiment to verify the effectiveness of the implemented system.