An increasing amount of information content used in schools, work and everyday living is being presented in graphical form, creating accessibility challenges for individuals who are blind or visually impaired, especially in dynamic environments, such as over the internet. Refreshable haptic displays that can interact with computers can be used to access such information tactually. Main focus of this study was the development of specialized computer applications allowing users to actively compensate for the inherent issues of haptics when exploring visual diagrams as compared to vision, which we hypothesized, would improve the usability of such devices. An intuitive zooming algorithm capable of automatically detecting significant different zoom levels, providing auditory feedback, preventing cropping of information and preventing zooming in on areas where no features were present was developed to compensate for the lower spatial resolution of haptics and was found to significantly improve the performance of the participants. Another application allowing the users to perform dynamic simplifications on the diagram to compensate for the serial based nature of processing 2D geometric information was tested and found to significantly improve the performance of the participants. For both applications participants liked the user interface and found it more usable, as expected. In addition, in this study we investigated methods that can be used to effectively present different visual features as well as overlaying features present in the visual diagrams. Three methods using several combinations of tactile and auditory modalities were tested. We found that the performance significantly improves when using the overlapping method using different modalities. For tactile only methods developed for deaf blind individuals, the toggle method was surprisingly preferred as compared to the overlapping method.

Our everyday lives are surrounded by gadgets and digital devices that help us perform our daily chores with ease and efficiency. However, these digital devices can also separate us from what we should do ourselves. Although children who are exposed to high levels of technology might become attuned to the latest and the best gadgets, they might not learn to use their physical abilities. Another implication of a child’s over dependence on technology is that parental interactions such as encouragement, tutoring and reinforcement are provided by gadgets rather than living, breathing parents. Research done by Padma Ravichandran and Brandel France de Bravo, revealed the importance of child interaction with live people and games noting that “Very young children learn best by relating to real live people, but they also learn by moving and doing. Part of the problem with screen time is that young children who watch TV and DVDs or use computer games may be substituting these activities for free play”. The aim of this project is to reduce the gap between young children and the tactile world by creating toys that are attractive for the children, but are low-tech and involve parental interaction. Thus, the primary goal that this thesis seeks to achieve is the stimulation of children toward tactile games, while the secondary goal is to allow and encourage parental involvement in the playtime of the child. The research is guided by the premise that children can absorb substantial knowledge through the tactile world and that such tactile centered play will broaden the horizon of their knowledge and experience.

Haptic mice, computer mice modified to have a tactile display, have been developed to enable access to computer graphics by individuals who are blind or visually impaired. Although these haptic mice are potentially very helpful and have been frequently used by the research community, there are some fundamental problems with the mouse, limiting its acceptance. In this paper we have identified the problems and have suggested solutions using one haptic mouse, the VT Player. We found that our modified VT Player showed significant improvement both in terms of the odds of obtaining a correct responses and the time to perform the tasks.

Application of haptic devices expanded to fields like virtual manufacturing, virtual assembly or medical simulations. Advances in development of haptic devices have resulted in a wide distribution of assymetric 6/3-DOF haptic devices. However, current haptic rendering algorithms work correctly only for symmetric devices. This thesis analyzes 3-DOF and 6-DOF haptic rendering algorithms and proposes an algorithm for 6/3-DOF haptic rendering involving pseudo-haptics. The 6/3-DOF haptic rendering algorithm is implemented based on the previous analysis and tested in a user study.

Tactons are tactile cues, which work in conjunction with a vibrotactile device that is placed on the body, and mechanically produces sensations on the skin surface; this allows the sense of touch to be used in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI). Effective tacton parameters of stimuli have been identified for a young population. However, studies have shown that the detection of vibrations degrades as a natural part of the aging process. Furthermore, there are a variety of different vibrotactile devices, and studies have shown that vibrotactile device type can affect detection thresholds. This presents a challenge since detection thresholds and recognition rates of different tacton cues, using one device, may not correlate to those of another. There is limited research on the effectiveness of tacton parameters and detection thresholds of simple waveforms in an older population of computer users, when using the C2 Tactor from EAI systems. This work used the C2 Tactor and stimulus parameters similar to those which have been shown to be effective in a young population, and conducted a comparison study between a young population of computer users between 18 and 25 years old and an older population of computer users between 55 and 75 years old. The study compared both groups' detection thresholds of three different simple waveforms (sinusoidal, square, and sawtooth) and found a significant increase in detection threshold by the older group. In addition a comparison of both groups' recognition rates of modulated sinusoidal waveforms was conducted and it was found that the older group had a significant decrease in recognition rates of modulated sinusoidal waveforms. In addition, it was shown that increasing the amplitude significantly improved the recognition rate of the older test group. A significant amount of variance in detection threshold and tacton recognition rates was found in the older test group, particularly those over the age of 60. The results of this study clearly showed a correlation between age, detection threshold, and recognition rates of tactons. The study shows that detection threshold and recognition rate deficiencies of older adults are functions of frequency and amplitude and not waveform or device.

La téléopération ouvre des possibilité nouvelles d'interaction avec le micro-monde. Avec des systèmes adaptés il devient possible de manipuler des éléments aux échelles microscopiques. L'ajout d'un retour haptique apporte une information supplémentaire nécessaire à une interaction naturelle. Cette thèse aborde la problématique de la conception d'une chaîne de téléopération haptique par la conception de ses éléments clefs. La première partie décrit l'optimisation de l'interface haptique à un degré de liberté haute fidelité issue des précédents travaux du laboratoire. Un premier travail augmente la précision des efforts produits. Cette amélioration est liée à une optimisation de la mesure de la vitesse de l'interface à des fréquences d’échantillonnage élevées. Un second point traite de la validation et quantification précise des forces de l'interface. La deuxième partie décrit deux nouveaux capteurs de force conçu spécifiquement pour les interactions avec le micro-monde. Ces fonctionnent sur le même principe de mesure par compensation. Deux approches sont suivies pour augmenter les fréquences des forces mesurable par le capteur. La première s'attache à réduire la masse en concevant un nouveau capteur à l'échelle micrométrique avec des technologies MEMS. Une deuxième approche modifie la conception du capteur et supprime la raideur dans le guidage. La troisième partie décrit la conception d'une nouvelle interface haptique à plusieurs degrés de liberté. Les éléments clefs de sa conception sont l'utilisation d'un palier à air, pour un guidage sans frottement, et de moteurs linéaires à induction, pour une inertie réduite. / Teleoperation opens up new possibilities for interaction with the micro-world. Adequate systems make it possible for human to manipulate elements on microscopic scales. An added haptic feedback provides information crucial for a natural interaction. A bilateral coupling between the subsystems offers the best haptic transparency. This thesis addresses the design of a complete haptic teleoperation chain by focusing on its key elements. Three parts are detailed: The first part describes improvements of the high fidelity one degree of freedom haptic interface designed previously. First, the precision of the forces produced is improved. This improvement is related to the measurement of the motor velocity at high sampling frequencies. Then, the device is precisely caracterized. The second part describes the design of two new force sensors designed specifically for interactions with the micro-world. The forces are measured by compensation. Two approach are observed to expand the frequencies of forces measurable by the sensors. First approach try to reduce the mass, a new sensor on a micrometric scale is built with MEMS technologies. The second approach offer a new design of the sensor. In particular, the stiffness in the guidance is removed. The third part describes the design of a new haptic interface with multiple degrees of freedom. This interface combines the performances of the one degree of freedom interface with a 2D configuration. The key elements of its design are the an air bearing for frictionless guidance and linear induction motors for reduced inertia.

Abstract: A phenomenological study of chiasmic and haptic embodiment of the world through passage, in order to illustrate the reading of chalked stone inscriptions on South African koppies as “footnotes” to a landscape as text.

<div>This thesis research was motivated by the need for increasing speech transmission rates through a phonemic-based tactile speech communication device named TAPS (TActile Phonemic Sleeve). The device consists of a 4-by-6 tactor array worn on</div><div>the forearm that delivers vibrotactile patterns corresponding to English phonemes. Three studies that proceeded this thesis evaluated a coding strategy that mapped 39 English phonemes into vibrotactile patterns. This thesis corresponds to a continuation of the project with improvements summarized in two parts. First, a design and implementation of a training framework based on theories of second language acquisition and game-based learning is developed. A role playing game named Haptos was designed to implement this framework. A pilot study using the first version of the game showed that two participants were able to master a list of 52 words within 45 minutes of game play. Second, an improved set of haptic codes was designed. The design was based on the statistics of spoken English and included an additional set of codes that abbreviate the most frequently co-occurring phonemes in duration. The new set included 39 English phonemes and 10 additional abbreviated symbols. The new codes represent a 24 to 46% increase in word presentation rates. A second version of the Haptos game was implemented to test the new 49 codes in a learning curriculum distributed over multiple days. Eight participants learned the new codes within 6 hours of training and obtained an average score of 84.44% in symbol identification tests with error rates per haptic symbol below 18%. The results demonstrate the feasibility of employing the new codes for future work where the ability to receive longer sequences of phonemes corresponding to phrases and sentences will be trained and tested.</div>

La communication haptique interpersonnelle est communément utilisée pour se saluer, se féliciter, ou de manière indirecte pour manipuler des objets lourds. Pourtant, la modalité haptique est absente des systèmes de communication à distance usuels. Les progrès récents de l'informatique et des réseaux de communication ont permis l'émergence d'environnements virtuels collaboratifs offrant un retour haptique aux utilisateurs. Les environnements virtuels collaboratifs constituent une solution prometteuse pour faciliter le travail collaboratif à distance. Les contextes applicatifs sont nombreux : entrainement militaire, assemblage mécanique, manipulation moléculaire, conception assistée par ordinateur.Toutefois, les utilisateurs d'environnements virtuels collaboratifs sont confrontés à deux types de problématiques : celles liées aux environnements virtuels 3D et celles liées à la collaboration à distance. En effet, il est difficile pour un utilisateur peu expérimenté d'interagir avec un environnement virtuel 3D. Se déplacer et manipuler des objets dans ce type d'environnement nécessite une bonne représentation mentale de l'espace.De plus, la collaboration à distance limite les possibilités et la qualité de la communication. Les informations dont disposent les utilisateurs sur leurs partenaires sont donc réduites. Dans ce contexte, la coordination des actions entre les utilisateurs devient plus complexe.L'objectif de ces travaux de thèse est donc de proposer des méthodes d'interaction visio-haptique pour faciliter la coordination et augmenter l'attention mutuelle entre les utilisateurs. Via l'amélioration de la coordination et de l'attention inter-utilisateurs, une augmentation des performances et de l'efficacité du travail collaboratif est escomptée.Trois types d'interactions fondamentales sont abordées dans un contexte collaboratif : la coordination des sélections, le paramétrage des sélections et la manipulation collaborative d'objet. Pour chacune des tâches d'interactions précédemment citées, des méthodes d'interaction ainsi que des outils de coordination et de communication ont été proposé et évalué.Ces travaux de thèse présentent les points forts mais aussi les défauts des méthodes d'interaction collaboratives fortement couplées. Les résultats obtenus montrent également l'importance de la communication haptique dans la collaboration à distance. / Haptic interpersonal communication is commonly used to salute, to congratulate, or indirectly to manipulate heavy objects. However, the haptic feedback is missing from the common communication systems. Recent developments in telecommunications and computer capabilities have made possible the use of haptic feedback in collaborative virtual environments. Collaborative virtual environments are a promising solution to facilitate remote work collaboration. They have many applications like: military training, engineering design, e-learning or video games.Nevertheless, users of collaborative virtual environments have to face several issues. First, interacting with a virtual environment is not a straightforward task. Navigate and manipulate objects in a virtual environment requires a good mental representation of space. Secondly, remote collaboration limits the communication quality because even the best video conference system can't support all the richness of a face to face communication. Information available on the partners are reduced thus coordinate actions between users become a complex task.The aim of this thesis is to propose visual haptic interactions to simplify coordination and increase mutual awareness between the users. Through the improvement of coordination and mutual awareness an increase of team performance and work efficiency is expected.Three kind of fundamental 3D interactions are addressed in collaborative context: the coordination of selections, the setting of selections and the manipulation of objects. For each of these three of fundamental interactions, several methods of interaction and tools of coordination are proposed and assessed.The findings of this thesis highlight the strengths and the weaknesses of the closely coupled method of interactions. The results of the experiments also confirm the importance of haptic communication in remote collaboration.

Desde o final da década de 1980, um gênero de imagens denominado de fotografia brasileira contemporânea vai se delineando no campo artístico. Artistas como Rosângela Rennó, Claudia Andujar e Miguel Rio Branco produzem fotografias que se inserem no âmbito da arte contemporânea inovando no modo de construção da imagem fotográfica. O presente trabalho elege dois fotolivros de Rio Branco para investigar algumas das inovações no modo como a fotografia articula uma significação mais sensível. O ponto de vista teórico adotado para a análise dessas imagens deriva dos estudos semióticos greimasianos, que passam a dar conta desde a década de 1990 do estudo de textos poéticos que exaltam a sensibilidade. Além de uma maior consideração do corpo como base para a apreensão do sentido nos textos visuais, a semiótica avança na diferenciação de níveis de análise do texto. Tendo em vista a hierarquização proposta por Fontanille em 2007, esta pesquisa investiga as principais estratégias enunciativas empregadas por Miguel Rio Branco na construção do texto imagético, acentuando o papel da organização plástica e particularizando o papel da textura na criação de uma aproximação sensível do texto ao enunciatário. Leva-se em consideração ainda, o papel do objeto fotolivro na apreensão das imagens, como importante suporte que evoca corporalmente o observador. No nível das cenas predicativas, pontua-se algumas práticas enunciativas que vão se sedimentando ao longo do tempo na fotografia artística. A escolha de temas mais cotidianos e o retrato de objetos banais subvertem inicialmente o estatuto artístico, mas terminam por caracterizar uma postura enunciativa que convoca o enunciatário a conhecer de modo sensível a apreensão do banal. Essas estratégias demonstram, portanto, a defesa de formas de vida que prezam pela presença mais sensível do homem no mundo, valorizando o engajamento sensível de todo o corpo na relação com os objetos e com os textos artísticos. A consideração dos textos, objetos, cenas predicativas, estratégias e modos de vida permite ao analista uma visão mais ampla sobre os papéis que a imagem fotográfica perfaz. Uma análise mais aprofundada da obra de Rio Branco permite, ainda, explorar os efeitos sensíveis de estratégias enunciativas como a construção de metáforas visuais por meio de dípticos. Explora-se também, o papel da textura na exaltação da superfície dos objetos e valorização de uma sensibilidade háptica, na qual a sinestesia se torna a base para que o visual encontre relações possíveis com o tato. / Since the late 1980s, a genre of images called contemporary brazilian photography will be outlining in the artistic field. Artists like Rosângela Rennó, Claudia Andujar and Miguel Rio Branco had produced photographs that are within the scope of contemporary art, innovating the construction of the photographic image. This research elects two photobooks from Rio Branco to investigate some of the innovations in the way photography articulates a more sensible meaning. The theoretical point of view adopted for the analysis of these images derives from Greima`s semiotic studies, bringing to account since the 1990s the study of poetic texts that exalt the sensitivity. In addition to the greater consideration of the body as the basis for the apprehension of meaning in visual texts, semiotics advances in differentiating levels of text analysis. Given the hierarchy proposed by Fontanille in 2004, this research investigates the main strategies employed by Miguel Rio Branco in the construction of imagistic text, highlighting the role of plastic organization and individualising the role of texture in creating a sensitive approach to the text enunciatee. It takes into account also the role of the photobook object in the apprehension of images, how important that support bodily evokes the observer. At the level of predicative scenes, points up some enunciative practices that will solidifying over time in artistic photography. The choice of most everyday topics and the portrait of banal objects initially subvert the artistic status, but they eventually characterize an enunciative stance that calls the sensibility of the enunciatee to apprenhend the banal. These strategies, therefore, demonstrate the defense of life forms which have the most sensitive presence in the world, valuing sensitive engagement of the whole body in relation to objects and artistic texts. The consideration of texts, objects, predicative scenes, strategies and ways of life allows the analyst a broader view on the roles that the photographic image totals. Further analysis of the work of Rio Branco also explores the sensitive effects of enunciative strategies such as constructing visual metaphors through diptychs. It also explores the role of texture in the exaltation of the surface of objects and appreciation of a haptic sensitivity, in which synesthesia becomes the basis for the visual find possible relations with tact.