research-article

GelTouch: Localized Tactile Feedback Through Thin, Programmable Gel

Authors:

Viktor Miruchna,

David Lindlbauer,

Regine von Klitzing,

Jörg MüllerAuthors Info & Claims

UIST '15: Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology

Pages 3 - 10

https://doi.org/10.1145/2807442.2807487

Published: 05 November 2015 Publication History

Abstract

We present GelTouch, a gel-based layer that can selectively transition between soft and stiff to provide tactile multi-touch feedback. It is flexible, transparent when not activated, and contains no mechanical, electromagnetic, or hydraulic components, resulting in a compact form factor (a 2mm thin touchscreen layer for our prototype). The activated areas can be morphed freely and continuously, without being limited to fixed, predefined shapes. GelTouch consists of a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel layer which alters its viscoelasticity when activated by applying heat (>32 C). We present three different activation techniques: 1) Indium Tin Oxide (ITO) as a heating element that enables tactile feedback through individually addressable taxels; 2) predefined tactile areas of engraved ITO, that can be layered and combined; 3) complex arrangements of resistance wire that create thin tactile edges. We present a tablet with 6x4 tactile areas, enabling a tactile numpad, slider, and thumbstick. We show that the gel is up to 25 times stiffer when activated and that users detect tactile features reliably (94.8%).

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Cited By

Nash JSteer CDinca TSharma AFavaratto Santos AWildgoose BAger AClarke CAlexander J(2024)DeformIO: Dynamic Stiffness Control on a Deformable Force-sensing DisplayExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3650772(1-8)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650772
Kim YYim JKim JKim KLee G(2024)STButton: Exploring Opportunities for Buttons with Spatio-Temporal Tactile OutputExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3648671(1-5)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3648671
Steer CSauvé KJain ALawal OProulx MJicol CAlexander J(2024)Squishy, Yet Satisfying: Exploring Deformable Shapes' Cross-Modal Correspondences with Colours and EmotionsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641952(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3641952
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Index Terms

GelTouch: Localized Tactile Feedback Through Thin, Programmable Gel
1. Human-centered computing

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cover image ACM Conferences

UIST '15: Proceedings of the 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software & Technology

November 2015

686 pages

ISBN:9781450337793

DOI:10.1145/2807442

General Chair:
Celine Latulipe
UNC Charlotte, USA
,
Program Chairs:
Bjoern Hartmann
UC Berkeley, USA
,
Tovi Grossman
Autodesk Research, Canada

Copyright © 2015 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than the author(s) must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected].

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Published: 05 November 2015

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German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
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UIST '15

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UIST '15: The 28th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

November 11 - 15, 2015

NC, Charlotte, USA

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UIST '15 Paper Acceptance Rate 70 of 297 submissions, 24%;

Overall Acceptance Rate 561 of 2,567 submissions, 22%

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The 38th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology

September 28 - October 1, 2025

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Cited By

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https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3650772
Kim YYim JKim JKim KLee G(2024)STButton: Exploring Opportunities for Buttons with Spatio-Temporal Tactile OutputExtended Abstracts of the CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613905.3648671(1-5)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613905.3648671
Steer CSauvé KJain ALawal OProulx MJicol CAlexander J(2024)Squishy, Yet Satisfying: Exploring Deformable Shapes' Cross-Modal Correspondences with Colours and EmotionsProceedings of the 2024 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems10.1145/3613904.3641952(1-20)Online publication date: 11-May-2024
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3613904.3641952
Bhatnagar THiggins AMarquardt NMiodownik MHolloway C(2023)Analysis of Product Architectures of Pin Array Technologies for Tactile DisplaysProceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction10.1145/36264687:ISS(135-155)Online publication date: 1-Nov-2023
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