The Metaptics project led by ISIR is one of the winners of the Universcience – Paris & Co call for innovative projects on the body and consumer interfaces.
The project, led by the ISIR’s Multi-Scale Interactions team, consists of a device with multiple localized tactile rendering areas. Metaptics aims to introduce its participants to interactions with haptic interfaces in a playful way, which are still little known by the general public.
The winning team, represented by Thomas Daunizeau, David Gueorguiev, Gilles Bailly, Sinan Haliyo, and Vincent Hayward, will be able to present their work on tactile surfaces in the City of science and industry, by June 2023 and for a period of 6 to 12 months. They will be accompanied during the preparatory phase by the teams of Universcience and Paris & Co. The team of researchers will be able to test and develop the haptic interface project in contact with the public. The visitors will have the opportunity to integrate the design and improvement process of the project in a participative approach.
A unique opportunity to conduct large-scale psychophysical tests on touch perception.
Consumer touch interfaces such as smartphones and tablets are equipped with advanced “multi-touch” detection capabilities. However, they are still limited to basic tactile stimulation, unable to transcribe the richness of information that the sense of touch allows. A better understanding of human tactile perception is essential for the development of future haptic interfaces.
The project will propose a tactile panel with multiple independent stimulation zones, combining haptics with the exceptional isolation capacities of acoustic metamaterials. Depending on the scenario of use set up, several studies could then be conducted. For example, the public could be asked to match stimuli to perceptual dimensions (soft, rough, etc). Knowing that the sense of touch is essential to communicate emotions, the answers will help to parameterize and adjust the tactile signals to correspond to a particular feeling or emotion. More generally, this exchange with the public will be an opportunity to bring to the research work carried out at ISIR a different, user-centered perspective, more in line with societal expectations.
Universcience call for innovative projects
Aiming to support digital creation, to make the public of Universcience discover innovative devices in advance and to make them participate in their maturation process, this call for projects was dedicated to technological and usage innovations on the theme “body and interfaces”.
Learn more about the call for projects.
