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Advancements in prototyping technologies – haptics and extended reality – are creating exciting new environments to enhance stakeholder and user interaction with design concepts. These interactions can now occur earlier in the design process, transforming feedback mechanisms resulting in greater and faster iterations. This is essential for bringing right-first-time products to market as quickly as possible. While existing feedback tools, such as speak-aloud, surveys and/or questionnaires, are a useful means for capturing user feedback and reflections on interactions, there is a desire to explicitly map user feedback to their physical prototype interaction. Over the past decade, several hand-tracking tools have been developed that can, in principle, capture product user interaction. In this paper, we explore the capability of the LeapMotion Controller, MediaPipe and Manus Prime X Haptic gloves to capture user interaction with prototypes. A broad perspective of capability is adopted, including accuracy as well as the practical aspects of knowledge, skills, and ease of use. In this study, challenges in accuracy, occlusion and data processing were elicited in the capture and translation of user interaction into design insights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Haptic technology has many real world applications such as rehabilitation robotics, telepresence surgery, gaming, virtual reality and human-robot interaction. Force plays an important role in the above mentioned haptic applications. In this paper, we propose a method to estimate force from surface Electromyography (SEMG) signals using Artificial Neural Network (ANN). The haptic device is modeled to act as a virtual spring. The neural network is trained with EMG data from wrist flexion action as input and force values from the haptic device as target. The results shown in this paper illustrate the neural network performance in estimating the force values in real-time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Integrating game technology into education and learning has had some significant impact on children's learning and cognitive processes by helping to make learning an even more enjoyable experience. The use of technology in the education of blind children has also shown positive and beneficial effects. The emergence of haptic technology and the opportunity of creating interfaces for non-visual audio-haptic interaction have opened the door to digital graphics and 3D models by blind users. This paper describes the development of a design framework of an educational force-feedback game for blind and visually impaired students to enable them to practise and learn about 3D objects in free space. Ultimately this is a step in the process of developing games that enable blind students to playfully learn the more complex mathematical concepts that appear to need a visual understanding such as geometry and the use of graphs. The design of this game has been derived from the end users' expectations and requirements. The final aim is to use the same rendering pipeline that is used in the haptic exploration of real objects. A user centred design approach is used to prepare a detailed specification of virtual learning environment (VLE) and review prototype development using the Novint's Falcon. The involvement of educators and parents in the design process is crucial and beneficial but in order to understand and identify the end users' needs and expectations and therefore implement concepts optimally, it is vital to involve the target users themselves in the design process. This paper thus presents results of experiments with blind users and interviews with them, their parents and teachers to establish the design framework. It goes on to discuss the initial findings gathered from the testing phase made on the manipulation and recognition of primitive 3D objects by a focus group and highlights the improvements that need to be made. An initial experiment with the game interface is also introduced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]