[Colloquium] Shan-Yuan Teng Candidacy Exam/Nov 17, 2023

[Megan Woodward]

This is an announcement of Shan-Yuan Teng's Candidacy Exam.
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Candidate: Shan-Yuan Teng

Date: Friday, November 17, 2023

Time:  4 pm CST

Location: JCL 223

Title: Enabling Haptic Experiences Anywhere, Anytime

Abstract: My research is driven by the question: why haptic devices (e.g., interactive devices that create the sense of touch/forces) cannot exhibit properties that we expect from all our typical interactive devices (phones/wearables/headsets), such as mobility and availability? What fundamental restrictions are limiting the advancement of wearable haptics devices, and more importantly, can we tackle these?

I examine this tension and trace back the possible root causes to the way that haptic devices are currently engineered, and the priorities taken during the interface design. The root cause is that to deliver realistic & immersive sensations, haptic devices employ large actuators, which leads to two interface issues:  (1) extreme power consumption, which causes these devices to have a short-lived life or require enormous amounts of heavy batteries or even be tethered to power; and (2) cumbersome form factors that obstruct the user’s body and prevent users from engaging in other dexterous tasks (e.g., imagine the challenge: while wearing haptic gloves that provides tactile feedback for 3D modeling, now the user wants to grab a coffee cup or pick up a pen).

I propose alternative approaches to engineer haptic devices: (1) utilize the user’s body as the power source for extreme portability; (2) design devices that respect the user’s context (e.g., do not block the user from other manual tasks). Using these principles, I demonstrate a roadmap towards a new generation of haptics devices that will enable haptic experiences anywhere and anytime.

Advisors: Pedro Lopes

Committee Members: Pedro Lopes, Ken Nakagaki, and Sean Follmer
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