Towards a framework for ubiquitous audio-tactile design

Maximilian Weber (1, 2) , Charalampos Saitis (3, 4)

1 Audio Communication Group, TU-Berlin
2 TU - Technical University of Berlin / Technische Universität Berlin
3 Centre for Digital Music
4 QMUL - Queen Mary University of London

To enable a transition towards rich vibrotactile feedback in applications and media content, a complete end-to-end system — from the design of the tactile experience all the way to the tactile stimulus reproduction — needs to be considered. Currently, most applications are at best limited to dull vibration patterns due to limited hard- and software implementations, while the design of ubiquitous platform-agnostic tactile stimuli remains challenging due to a lack of standardized protocols and tools for tactile design, storage, transport, and reproduction. This work proposes a conceptual framework, utilizing audio assets as a starting point for the design of vibrotactile stimuli, including ideas for a parametric tactile datamodel, and outlines challenges for a platform-agnostic stimuli reproduction. Finally, the benefits and shortcomings of a commercial and widespread vibrotactile API are investigated as an example for the current state of a complete end-to-end framework.

Domains: Computer Science [cs]

Maximilian Weber, Charalampos Saitis. Towards a framework for ubiquitous audio-tactile design. International Workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design, 2020, Montreal, Canada. ⟨hal-02901209⟩