In MoI we are studying the overall user experience of haptic interaction (i.e. interaction with devices based on sense of touch). The objective of the research is to understand the user needs and factors that affect the interaction with haptic systems. Researchers at Human-Centered Technology (IHTE) in Tampere University of Technology (TUT) are working in close cooperation with Department of electronics in TUT, Tampere Unit for Computer-Human Interaction (TAUCHI) in Tampere University (UTa) and Nokia Research Center (NRC).

The project started in May 2008 and will last until the end of February 2009.

Anecdote of the day: The name of the project is actually “Spatial Haptics”. Mobile Immersion (MoI) is the name of a larger project entity that is conducted by Nokia Research Center. We prefer MoI because of the funny abbreviation (“Hi” in Finnish).

Background and Motivation

Mobile devices have become very widespread and the sales figures are growing each year. Their use is based on audio and video modalities, but currently they are lacking the haptic modality. Haptic interaction is a rather novel concept – both regarding research and design. Technologies for providing haptic responses do exist but the use cases as well as the possibilities and restrictions of haptic interaction are not properly understood. Until now, the use cases of haptics have been mostly augmenting individual user’s experience of a certain application with the new modality (e.g. force feedback in gaming).

However, sense of touch is highly in use in people’s every day lives: it is in a fundamental role in people’s face-to-face communication, in examining new objects, performing every-day tasks, everywhere... The use of the haptic modality can also be very useful in noisy or crowded situations where the user is under a high cognitive load. In scientific forums, these possibilities in have not been investigated thoroughly. The research in the field has, so far, concentrated mainly on haptic devices and technologies – how to generate different stimuli and studying various demo applications. To gather knowledge on the true advantages of haptic interaction, it is essential to start with studying user needs research to understand all the factors that influence the haptic user experience.