Soft Haptic Interface based on Vibration and Particle Jamming

Abstract

Whilst common in devices ranging from smart-phones to game controllers, vibrotactile feedback has generally been limited to providing a uniform sensation across a tactile surface. We propose a haptic interface based on the emerging physical effect of particle jamming with both vibrotactile and shape changing outputs, which can be extended in space to create haptic surfaces and devices with shape and vibrotactile responses localised to one part of the device. This paper gives an overview of the physical principles behind this technology and presents detailed performance metrics obtained from a working prototype. These include experimental characterization of the relationships between air pressure and electric motor power and vibration amplitude and frequency which show that it is possible to control vibrotactile amplitude and frequency independently.