Design of a Haptic Language for Gestural Control of Smart Lights (2020)

Ubiquitous haptics draws from ubiquitous computing and aims to integrate haptics in everyday life to render interaction with technology seamless and intuitive. We describe an explorative design process that takes ubiquitous haptics as a starting point and aims to discover opportunities for haptics in a near future in which smart objects and haptic feedback are omnipresent. Through hands-on experimentation and brainstorming, we conceived a concept for the use of haptic feedback as part of a gestural language for interactions with connected devices, and more specifically with smart lights. The concept was developed and validated by exploring usage scenarios and experimenting with low-fidelity Wizard-of-Oz prototypes and high-fidelity prototype in virtual reality. This process led to the design of an intuitive and seamless user experience for smart lighting control based on a synergy between gestures and haptic feedback. I The emerging ubiquitous technologies around us may soon demand and allow for new ways of interacting [ ]. Screens may no longer be the preferred medium for intuitive information communication, given their demand for attention. This demand leaves us focused on our screens instead of being in and interacting with the world around us. Opportunities remain to make interaction more seamlessly and elegantly intertwined within everyday life. An example is Poupyrev et al.'s pioneering work on Jacquard [ ], a conductive thread that allows for touch and gesture-based interactions with clothing and textiles. In this work, we aimed to explore and prototype applications of haptic feedback that would improve the user experience of interactions with ubiquitous computing and smart, connected devices. We began with an explorative design study that used hands-on experience of haptic feedback and ideation activites such as brainstorms to generate ideas for the use of haptic feedback in ubiquitous computing. Through this process, the use of haptic feedback as part of a gestural language for the control of smart lighting emerged as a promising concept. We imagined a gestu-ral language operated through free-hand gestures, with haptic feedback produced on a smartwatch, as a seamless, efficient solution for interactions with a set of smart lightbulbs in the home. The concept was first prototyped with a Wizard-of-Oz simulation, before implementing a higher-fidelity prototype in virtual reality (see Figure). Throughout this process, efforts were made to develop a universal haptic language by consistently varying parameters to communicate specific information. This work shows that rapid prototyping and user-centered design are valuable approaches to reveal opportunities for haptics. Analysis of an interaction in terms of user needs reveals several ways in which hap-tics can make interactions clear. Many scenarios were found in which the user would get lost without any form of feedback or status update. * g.a.g.verhoeven@student.utwente.nl † vincent.levesque@etsmtl.ca Figure : High-fidelity prototype in virtual reality, with four smart light bulbs in a virtual living room. For many such moments, haptics proved useful to provide the necessary information. For example, haptics can be used to communicate the current state of the system, the confirmation of a user action and affordances for interaction. It was found that haptic signals are better understood when they resemble a phenomenon or GUI element that is known to the user. This work contributes to a future of ubiquitous computing in which haptics may play a significant role. By concretizing this future via rapid prototyping, this work identified possible applications for haptics in everyday usage scenarios.