Prof. Zhonglin Wang
Foreign academician of Chinese Academy of Sciences; Academician of European Academy of Sciences; Director of Beijing Institute of Nanoenergy and Nanosystems, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Topic: Self-powered Electro-tactile System based on TENG
Abstract: Triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) was invented in 2012, which is based on coupling of triboelectrification and electrostatic induction effects, which is the most effective approach for converting mechanical energy into electric power. TENG is playing a vitally important role in the distributed energy and self-powered systems, with applications in internet of things, environmental/infrastructural monitoring, medical science, environmental science and security. In this talk, we first present the fundamental theory of the TENG, and its applications in self-powered electro-tactile system.
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Prof. Hong Z. Tan
IEEE fellow; Purdue University
Topic: Receiving Text Messages on the Skin
Abstract: During the 12 months from June 2017 to June 2018, two teams of researchers at MIT and Purdue University set out to create a tactile communication system for transmitting English messages. The target users were everyone, regardless of their sensory capabilities. Born was the TActile Phonemic Sleeve (TAPS) that consists of 24 tactors wrapped around the forearm. More than 100 participants have been trained with the TAPS system. User data provide unequivocal evidence that transmission of the entire English language on the skin is not only possible, but now a proven reality. The best participants were able to acquire up to 500 English words in 500 minutes. That’s a learning rate of 1 English word per minute!
In this talk, I will share the key insights in designing distinctive haptic symbols, mapping all 39 English phonemes to the symbols, and training learners to recognize phonemes and words within a reasonable amount of time. I will share the guidelines for achieving such success using an information theoretical framework. It is my hope that TAPS will inspire more work in maximizing information transmission through haptic display systems.
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Prof. Domenico Prattichizzo
IEEE Fellow; Professor of Robotics and Haptics, University of Siena ; President Eurohaptics Society; EIC IEEE Transactions on Haptics
Topic: Wearable Haptics for Physical Metaverse and Human Augmentation
Abstract: The challenge of wearable haptics is to return consistent sensory inputs to users while maintaining a sufficient level of wearability of the devices. Very frequently, for example, kinaesthetic feedback is missed to reduce the weight and the size of the wearables. Of course, design for wearability in haptics strongly depends on the target applications. In this keynote I will mainly focus on two new applications that we are studying at the SIRSLab. One is the physical metaverse and the other deals with human augmentation through wearable haptics.
In metaverse remote users interact with each other through avatars. However, in the metaverse there is a lack of manipulation abilities in physical space: existence and manipulative capabilities of avatars are confined inside the metaverse virtual layer. I will present an innovative idea, consisting of robotic and haptics devices, suitably combined, to push the boundaries of interaction from extended reality to physical environment.
The second application deals with Human augmentation consisting of integrating humans and robotic limbs to perform complex tasks with both biological and artificial limbs under the direct control of the human. Differently from collaborative robotics or teleoperation robotic extra limbs are not seen as external agents, but rather as the augmentation of the human body. This will lead to the simultaneous control of natural and artificial limbs through wearable human-robot interfaces. These will exploit innovative combinations of somatosensory stimuli to convey haptic sensations related to the task at hand, improving users ’control accuracy and level of engagement in the collaboration.
