Digital haptics

Background Already today we can observe motor deteriorations that are evoked by a lack of exercise caused by an excessive use of personal computers. Furthermore, the current interfaces between man and machine do not allow for much sensory feedback which is also a reason for withering haptic and motor abilities. Due to the extensive use of voice or gesture control the actual touching or moving of objects is in steady decline. Physical buttons are also things of the past and our thumbs and index fingers are only stroking and touching plain surfaces. But it is not only input devices that are changing. Virtual data is replacing haptic media as well. Once sent to the cloud all data is located in a hazy world that is not easy to comprehend. But wasn’t examining the world with our hands the most important of our senses with which we explored our surroundings in our childhood. Dr. Martin Grundwald, a researcher in the field of haptics, for example, considers the sense of touch to be the most important. He explains how we can understand our surroundings much more nuanced through the use of our touch than, for example, with our eyes. We are able to feel differences in surfaces that are as small as 1μm whereas the eye is only able to recognize a difference of 80-100μm. We also know that the haptic perception improves the didactics of human beings. Shouldn’t we therefore use our natural abilities in order to understand things more quickly? Just like we did when we were children. Or to put it like the famous educational theorist Johann Heinrich Pestalozzi: “Learn with head, heart and hand.”

Approach Imagine the work place of the future as a kind of playground where you can live it up. The sandbox would be morphing materials that communicate with the user on a haptic level through ever changing surfaces that translate all information into structures. By manipulating these surfaces this tool can also be used for the input of data. Of course there will also be physical representations of the huge amount of data that make work tangible again. Thus, there will also be a creative component that was not there before in a lot of cases. Just like playing with toy blocks data can be processed, deleted or just stored. The entire work space would be the building area which, in the future, will not consist of holographic interfaces, but rather of smart objects that make a more efficient and more natural exchange between man and machine possible.

to be continued…