HapBead: On-Skin Microfluidic Haptic Interface using Tunable Bead

Abstract

On-skin haptic interfaces using soft elastomers which are thin and flexible have significantly improved in recent years. Many are focused on vibrotactile feedback that requires complicated parameter tuning. Another approach is based on mechanical forces created via piezoelectric devices and other methods for non-vibratory haptic sensations like stretching, twisting. These are often bulky with electronic components and associated drivers are complicated with limited control of timing and precision. This paper proposes HapBead, a new on-skin haptic interface that is capable of rendering vibration like tactile feedback using microfluidics. HapBead leverages a microfluidic channel to precisely and agilely oscillate a small bead via liquid flow, which then generates various motion patterns in channel that creates highly tunable haptic sensations on skin. We developed a proof-of-concept design to implement thin, flexible and easily affordable HapBead platform, and verified its haptic rendering capabilities via attaching it to users' fingertips. A study was carried out and confirmed that participants could accurately tell six different haptic patterns rendered by HapBead. HapBead enables new wearable display applications with multiple integrated functionalities such as on-skin haptic doodles, mixed reality haptics and visual-haptic displays.

Designing Electrolysis Ion Display on Everyday Open Wet Surfaces

“…For example, there are examples of using bubbles [6,7,10], water drops [20,26,29], water condensation [22,28], textiles [1,8,12,25,30], and moss [17] as pixels. Moreover, in recent years, the interfaces using the techniques of microfluidics have been explored [4,19]. Userinteraction with displays using physical objects has also been tried in these previous studies.…”

Douleur

“…Tacttoo [94] demonstrated the feasibility of using thin-layered tactors to build ultra-thin tactile interfaces on fingertips. HapBead [32] was made thin and flexible, leveraging a microfluidic channel and oscillating a bead to provide tunable vibration sensations on fingertip.…”

BodyStylus: Freehand On-Body Design and Fabrication of Epidermal Interfaces

“…Building on pioneering work on epidermal electronics [37], the HCI community has proposed using on-skin devices for interactive purposes [97]. Various forms of input and output on the epidermis have been investigated, including multi-touch input [56], visual feedback [32,46,95,99], haptic output [22,23,52,102,105], stifness change [31], and customized physiological sensing [55]. Fully wireless solutions can be realized [48].…”