Technology constantly interacts with our senses through a multitude of stimuli: from the sight of our screens, to the sound of our headphones, to the vibration of our mobile phone. Haptic science is one of the most unknown by the average user and yet it represents one of the most interesting fields within innovation because of its potential benefits.

Haptic comes from the Greek, háptō, play. Touch allows us to notice textures, recognize shapes and receive all kinds of stimuli that other senses can barely perceive. It is a sense that we receive mainly through our skin, the most extensive organ of our body, although it also extends to other parts of the body and helps us, for example, to "feel the presence" of parts of our body-Help.

The human being is a mainly sight-oriented species, we base many of our actions and thoughts through this sense and, on many occasions, we ignore how important touch is. Haptic technology seeks to imitate sensations of touch through various mechanisms in order to transmit certain stimuli to the user.

Actually, this one has been with us for many years in one form or another. For the general public there are everyday examples such as the vibration of mobile phones, present since 1996 through the Motorola StarTACor on video game consoles since the launch of Rumble Pak accessory for Nintendo 64 in April 1997.

For the general public today, this science has focused on transmitting sensations, rather than simply sending a single signal to the user to warn him of a call or cause a device to vibrate. Until a few years ago, traditional vibration was limited to sending signals at a single intensity level, so feedback between user and device was very limited.

However, it has evolved to involve the operator in what is happening on the user's handsets: certain phone models, such as the iPhone through the Haptic TouchThe touch screens offer this type of feedback by making specific touches on their touch screens and even have different variations depending on the movements or actions of the user to indicate what action is being performed by the user without the need for other senses, such as sight.

As shown in the image below, Apple allows you to adjust various haptic indicators to modify the type of waveform sent in order to provide an experience that is tailored to the needs of each developer. More details about this haptic system are available at Cupertino's brand developer website.

 

Following the examples above, the console controls themselves have gone from having single-level vibration to begin integrating this type of technology. For example, in the driving simulator franchise Forza MotorsportIn addition, the control triggers offer different levels of user resistance to "feel" the engine when accelerating and even have different levels when brushing the pianos on the circuits or the sidewalks.

An idea that alsohas begun to be implemented in real vehicles to prevent accidents: by sending signals to the user through the steering wheel to prevent unintended lane changes or to wake the user up if the driver falls asleep.

Little by little this type of technology is taking on a more relevant role in our society and its applications are crossing barriers to adapt to the needs of all types of people. For example, people with disabilities who need very specific ways to interact with objects in their daily lives.

Haptic technology can be used to help them orient themselves or use certain devices more easily. In recent years, the first prototypes have been developed that focus on the benefits of haptics for people with different abilities. As is the case with the WeWalkA device for blind people that, through vibration, allows the user to be warned of possible obstacles, even before hitting them.

 

At Intelligent Data we are fully aware of the great potential of haptic technology to improve people's lives and health. That is why we are already developing and experimenting in our facilities with innovative devices that represent a new step in our product range.

The use of the haptic channel is especially relevant to us in blind people, a group with high haptic skills and a great capacity for sensory learning. Therefore, we are working on adapting advanced haptic technology to weareables such as bracelets or smartwatch or other devices of our daily life so that these people can use them in an intuitive and simple way. Currently, these devices use this type of technology in a very simple way or focused on complementing the sense of sight, but Intelligent Data's commitment to developing products focused on the health of all people, leads us to take a further step in this direction.

Therefore, providing additional information (haptics, augmented reality, artificial intelligence) adapted to each user (machine learning) can be a great starting point for our company and notably beneficial for this group of users. Currently, the front part (touch screen) and vibration are used, but there is still a wide area (back part of the devices...) and new features and technical functionalities to be developed (haptics, virtual reality...) to extend the man-machine communication means, and to make develop devices for people with disabilities.

Using different stimuli in the devices to indicate to the user how he is holding it or guiding him through vibrations to perform certain actions are some of the ideas we are currently working with and they offer us a new horizon of technological solutions.

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