ARE YOU HAPTIC A BAD DAY

ABSTRACT As with any haptic application development, issues of performance are often the subject of discussion (or contention) after design is already completed. Evaluating haptic-based applications have largely focused on a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis of kinesthetic feedback, repeatability of haptic task responses and/or the correlation of visualization software and haptic rendering, to name but a few. However, while there are ISO guidelines to evaluate the ergonomics of human system interaction, particularly in the area of usability, there is little resource in way of code diagnostics of haptic application architectures. This paper proposes a methodology of profiling for haptic applications as a measure of operational criteria. It is hoped that the findings and suggestions made can further advance the evaluation and development of more robust haptic systems. Keywords: virtual reality, haptics, haptic profiling, haptic architecture . 1. INTRODUCTION The last decade has seen an increasing use of haptics across domains from science and engineering to art and entertainment. Despite many developments, there is still relatively little knowledge about the confluence of software and the enabling hardware to provide the conditions that allow the development of a successful immersive sensory environment to convey information about a particular subject domain. Research often queries the performance of haptic rendering (fidelity of force feedback) [1] [2] [3]; haptic modelling (model representation) [4] [5] [6] [7]; user appreciation (psychophysical, perception and response) [1,8-10]; haptic device/interface performance [11-14]; haptic algorithms [15, 16] amongst others. The haptic community also recognizes the limited resources pertaining to design and use of tactile and haptic interactions [17, 18]. To this end an ISO working group, the ISO TC159/SC4/WG9, was established to prepare a framework to guide the ergonomics of haptic/tactile interactions with the view towards standardization and interoperability [19, 20]. The Guidelines On Tactile and Haptic Interactions (GOTHI) model [18, 21, 22] was thus formulated to identify what might be incorporated into an international standard on tactile and haptic interaction. While the software-ergonomic standards have been developed in IS0 TC 159/SC4/WG5 (Ergonomics of human system interaction), there is little in way of guidelines as to how to construct a framework to diagnose haptic system’s architecture, particularly where physics engines, graphic visualizers and large data sets are integrated. One foreseeable avenue is the ISO 9241-930 or the ISO 9241-940, currently under development, which covers Haptic/tactile interactions in multimodal environments [22]. From the several publications that deal with haptic rendering, applications and evaluation methodologies, there is yet no reported works that detail the development procedure and profiling of an optimal haptic system’s architecture. This paper therefore aims to address the aforementioned gaps that represent a critical path in any haptic application development. It is envisaged that the findings and recommendations made can further advance the development of more robust haptic systems.