Seminar Details
2026-03-17 (14:00) : Active surface haptics for rich touch interaction
At Euler building (room A.002)
Organized by Mathematical Engineering
Speaker :
Zhaochong Cai (ICTEAM, UCLouvain )
Abstract :
Touch is fundamental to our perception of the world and to our interaction with the physical environment. With touch, we can intuitively and effortlessly manipulate objects and control complex machines. However, most touch-based interfaces deliver only primitive tactile feedback, such as vibrations, which are a poor substitute for the richness of natural touch. This talk presents my doctoral work on the design and evaluation of active surface-haptic devices that deliver lateral force feedback to the bare fingertip. By generating controllable lateral forces using resonant traveling waves, these devices can render force fields and guide users toward targets, enabling the perception of virtual shapes and improving targeting performance. I will then briefly introduce my current postdoctoral project, which aims to connect fingertip skin deformation, mechanical modeling, and tactile afferent responses. In particular, the goal is to use imaging and microneurography to better understand how the local strain patterns at the skin surface during manipulation are transformed into neural signals.