A Human-Centered Approach to Haptic Interface Research

Hong Tan

Electrical and Computer Engineering
Purdue University

Date: Friday, October 29, 2004
Place: Engineering Sciences Building, Room 2001
Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm (Refreshments served at 1:30 pm)

Abstract:
The last decade has witnessed tremendous advancement in haptic human-machine interface research. Haptic interfaces open up new channels of communication between man and machine and hold promises for many applications including automobile design, human computer interaction, rehabilitation and virtual environments. Our unique contribution is a human-centered approach that matches performance of a haptic interface with the perceptual and motor capabilities of a human user. This talk will highlight several ongoing research projects including: a sensing chair that responds to seat pressure distribution, a haptic back display for priming visual spatial attention, perceptual characterization of rotary switches for automobile interior design, realistic rendering of virtual haptic textures, and (still in development) a haptic interface to scanning probe microscope that bridges the nano- and macroworld.

HONG Z. TAN is founder and director of the Haptic Interface Research Laboratory at Purdue University. In 1986, she received a Bachelor's degree in Biomedical Engineering (with a minor in Computer Science) from Shanghai Jiao Tong University. She earned her Master and Doctorate degrees, both in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1988 and 1996, respectively. From 1991 to 1993, she was a Research Associate at the Tufts University School of Medicine. From 1996 to 1998, she was a Research Scientist at the MIT Media Laboratory. In 1998, she joined the faculty at Purdue's School of Electrical and Computer Engineering as an Assistant Professor, and in 2003 received tenure and promotion to an Associate Professor. Since 2002, she has held a courtesy appointment at Purdue's School of Mechanical Engineering for her contribution to the Perception-Based Engineering program.

Her broad research interests in the area of haptic interfaces include psychophysics, haptic rendering, and distributed contact sensing. She is a recipient of National Science Foundation's Early Faculty Development (CAREER) Award (2000-2004). She has served on numerous conference program committees, and is currently co-organizer (with Blake Hannaford) of International Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (2003-2005).

Host: Professor Matthew Turk, Professor of Computer Science and Media Arts & Technology