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What is haptics?
haptics (adj.) Of or relating to the sense of touch; tactile. |
American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language – Fourth Edition |
Perhaps surprisingly, the term “haptics” was first introduced in 1931 and its origins can be traced back to the Greek words haptikos meaning able to touch and haptesthai which translates to able to lay hold of (Revesz, 1950; Krueger, 1989). Today the term, in its broadest sense, encompasses the study of touch and the human interaction with the external environment via touch.
The field of haptics, inherently multidisciplinary, involves research from engineering, robotics, developmental and experimental psychology, cognitive science, computer science, and educational technology.
This field has grown dramatically as haptic researchers are involved in the development, testing, and refinement of tactile and force feedback devices as well as supporting software that allow users to sense ("feel") and manipulate three-dimensional virtual objects (McLaughlin, Hespanha & Sukhatme, 2002).
In addition to basic psychophysical research on human haptics, work is being done in application areas such as surgical simulation, medical training, scientific visualization, and assistive technology for the blind and visually impaired. Haptics has been added to virtual reality environments. Our work focuses on augmenting scientific visualizations with haptics for use in an educational setting.
Haptics and Education
As part of this project we are exploring the impact of haptics on students' learning of science concepts.For educators, involving students in consciously choosing to investigate the properties of an object is a powerful motivator and increases attention to learning. Thus far, the results of our studies have found haptics to be motivating-- students find the haptic technology exciting, engaging, and interesting.
Our Research
One of the original haptic devices, and one of the interfaces employed in our studies, is SensAble Technologies' PHANToM (shown below). It is a small, desk-grounded robot-like arm that permits simulation of fingertip contact with virtual objects through a pen-like stylus.
The PHANToM desktop device from SensAble Technologies, Inc.Our research: In one study (Jones et al., 2003) we explored a new instructional tool (the nanoManipulator) that combines the PHANToM and an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM). With this new haptics application, students are able to feel nanosized materials such as viruses that are imaged under the AFM (described further below). In essence the user is afforded the opportunity to have a “hands-on” experience with objects at the nanometer scale that are too small to be touched or even seen otherwise. We examined how tactile and kinesthetic feedback influences students' learning about virus structure and function. This research with middle and high school students found that students found the experience engaging and developed more positive attitudes about science. Additionally, students showed significant gains in their understanding of viruses (particularly virus morphology and diversity of types).
Another study examined the differential impact of augmenting the computer mediated inquiry three feedback devices: the PHANToM (a sophisticated haptic desktop device), a Sidewinder (a haptic gaming joystick), and a mouse (no haptic feedback). Results suggest that the addition of haptic feedback provides a more immersive learning environment that not only makes the instruction more engaging but may also influence the way in which the students construct their understandings about viruses as evidenced by an increase in their use of spontaneously generated analogies.
More recent work is exploring how the addition of haptic feedback to computer-generated 3-D virtual models of an animal cell influences middle school students' understandings of cell concepts. The Haptic Cell Exploration instructional program (shown below) begins with a virtual model that depicts the 3-D nature and spatial arrangement of an animal cell including its typical parts (organelles).
The Haptic Cell: users can feel the organellesThe structural differences (i.e. relative size, surface area, texture, shape, elasticity & rigidity) of the parts are emphasized. Students can “poke' through the cell membrane, “feel” the viscosity of the cytoplasm, and “touch” the rough endoplasmic reticulum. The program also highlights the mechanisms behind the cell membrane's selective permeability. Students learn how certain molecules traverse the membrane via the various types of passive transport by trying to pass these substances through the membrane and “feeling” the associated forces (illustrated below).
Passive transport simulationHaptic Perception
Investigating the efficacy of haptic technology as an educational tool has caused our group to consider more deeply haptic perception and the interactions between visual and haptic information. Haptic perception involves sensors in the skin as well as the hand and arm. The movement that accompanies hands-on exploration involves different types of mechanoreceptors in the skin (involving deformation, thermoreception, and vibration of the skin), as well as receptors in the muscles, tendons, and joints involved in movement of the object (Verry, 1998).
For the science learner, kinesthetics allows the individual to explore concepts related to location, range, speed, acceleration, tension, and friction. Haptics enables the learner to identify hardness, density, size, outline, shape, texture, oiliness, wetness, and dampness (involving both temperature and pressure sensations) (Druyan, 1997; Schiffman, 1976).
Haptic Learning
Haptic learning plays an important role in a number of different learning environments. Students with visual impairments depend on haptics for learning through the use of Braille as well as other strategies (Sathian, 2000). Looked at from a constructivist's perspective, the haptic augmentation of computer-generated 3-D virtual environments, in which the student is an active participant, can be a powerful teaching tool (Lochhead, 1988; Loucks-Horsley, et al. 1990; Brooks & Brooks, 1993).
The addition of haptics affords students the opportunity to become more fully immersed in this process of meaning-making; taking advantage of tactile, kinesthetic, experiential, and embodied knowledge in new ways. This prospective new instructional tool can have direct implications on the way in which students are taught. Perhaps soon students will be able to become immersed in a virtual animal cell; more fully exploring its structure and functioning. In the end, the use of haptics in education is bound only by our imagination.
Haptic Devices
A haptic interface is a device which allows a user to interact with a computer by receiving tactile and kinesthetic feedback. A All haptic interface devices share the unparalleled ability to provide for simultaneous information exchange between a user and a machine as depicted below.
An illustration of the unique bi-directional information exchange of a haptic interface.A small sample of available devices:
MOMO Racing by Logitech
Speed Force by Logitech
The Phantom by Sensible Technology
CyberGrasp by Immersion Corporation
DELTA by Force Dimension
Force Feedback2 Joystick by Microscoft
Other Haptics Links
Adaptive Technology Resource Center at University of Toronto
Other Interesting Web Sites To Visit
The International Society for Haptics
Haptics-e: The Electronic Journal of Haptics Research
Research Team Haptic Publications
Wiebe, E. N., Minogue, J., Jones, M. G., Cowley, J., & Krebs, D. (under review). Haptic Feedback and Students' Learning about Levers: Unraveling the Effect of Simulated Touch. Computers and Education.
Taylor, A., & Jones, M. G. (2008). Proportional reasoning ability and concepts of scale: Surface area to volume relationships in science. International Journal of Science Education. Retrieved from
http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a792112881?words=jones&hash=880435510Minogue, J., & Jones, M. G. (2008). Measuring the Impact of Haptic Feedback Using the SOLO Taxonomy. International Journal of Science Education. Retrieved from http://www.informaworld.com/smpp/content~content=a792017787?words=jones&hash=880435510
Kubasko, D., Jones, M. G., Tretter, T. & Andre, T. (2008). Is it live or is it Memorex? Students’ synchronous and asynchronous communication with scientists. International Journal of Science Education, 30(4), 495- 514.
Minogue, J., Jones, M. G., Broadwell, B., & Oppewal, T. (2006). The impact of haptic augmentation on middle school students’ conceptions of the animal cell. Journal of Virtual Reality, 10, 3-4, 293-305.
Minogue, J. and Jones, M. G. (2005). Haptics in education: Exploring and untapped sensory modality. Review of Educational Research. 76(3), 217-348.
Minogue, J., Jones, M. G., and Broadwell, J. (2006). Exploring cells from inside out: New tools for the classroom. Science Scope, 29(6), 28-32.
Jones, M. G., Minogue, J., Oppewal, T., Cook, M., & Broadwell, B. (2006). Visualizing without vision at the microscale: Students with visual impairment explore cells with touch, Journal of Science Education and Technology, 15, 1573-1839.
Jones, M., Bokinsky, A., Tretter, T., & Negishi, A. (2005, May 2). A comparison of learning with haptic and visual modalities. Haptics-e The Electronic Journal of Haptics Research [Online], 3(5).). Available: http://albion.ee.washington.edu/he/ojs/viewarticle.php?id=44.
Jones, M. G., Minogue, J., Tretter, T., Negishi, A., & Taylor, R. (2006). Haptic augmentation of science instruction: Does touch matter? Science Education, 90, 111-123.
Jones, M. G., Andre, T., Kubasko, D., Bokinsky, A., Tretter, T., Negishi, A., Taylor, R., Superfine, R. (2004). Remote atomic force microscopy of microscopic organisms: Technological innovations for hands-on science with middle and high school students. Science Education, 88, 55-71.
Jones, M. G., Andre, T., Kubsko, D., Bokinsky, A., Tretter, T., Negishi, A., Taylor, R., & Superfine, R. (2004). Remote Atomic Force Microscopy of microscopic organisms: Technological innovations for hands-on science with middle and high school students. Science Education, 88, 55-70.
Other Haptic References
Insko, B., Meehan, M., Whitton, M., & Brooks, F. (2001). Passive haptics significantly enhances virtual environments. Computer Science Technical Report 01-010, University of North Carolina , Chapel Hill, NC .
Krueger, E. L. (1989). The world of touch, by David Katz. Hillsdale , NJ : Lawrence Erlbaum.
Lederman, S. (1983). Tactile roughness perception: Spatial and temporal determinants. Canadian Journal of Psychology, 37(4), 498-511.
Lederman, S.J. & Klatzky, R.L. (2001). Feeling surfaces and objects remotely. In S.A. Simon & M.A.L. Nicolelis (Series Ed.) & R. Nelson (Volume Ed.). Methods & New Frontiers in Neuroscience. The Somatosensory System: Deciphering the Brain's Own Body Image, (pp. 103-120). Florida : CRC Press LLC.
McLaughlin, M., Hespanha, J., & Sukhatme, G. (2002). Touch in virtual environments: Haptics and the design of interactive systems . New Jersey : Prentice Hall.
Sathian, K., Zangaladze, A., Hoffman, J., & Grafton, S. (1997). Feeling with the mind's eye. Neuroreport, 8(18), 3877-3881.
Sathian, K., (2000). Practice makes perfect: Sharper tactile perception in the blind. Neurology, 54, 2203-2204.
Schiffman, H. (1976). Sensation and perception: An integrated approach. NY: Wiley.Shapley, K. S., & Luttrell, H. D. (1993, January). Effectiveness of a teacher training model on the implementation of hands-on science. Paper presented at the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science International Conference.
Verry, R. (1998). Don't take touch for granted: An interview with Susan Lederman. Teaching Psychology, 25(1), 64-67.
Zangaladze, A., Epstein, C., Grafton, S., & Sathian, K. (1999). Involvement of visual cortex in tactile discrimination of orientation. Nature, 401, 587-590.
