The HTML5 Haptics Plugin

The World Wide Web has gone a long way from its humble beginnings when simple browsers exclusively supported plain textual layouts. Nowadays, it is not uncommon for web browsers to support 3D graphics as part of a colorful palette of contents available for developers in order to relay intended information. With the formal support of WebGL in HTML 5, the stage has been set to even further augment the web experience with haptic enabled content. This paper presents the development of the HTML5 Haptics Plugin, a browser extension that enables a web based force feedback experience. Also, the paper discusses the development of a haptics enabled web application designed for educational purposes.