Enhancing interactive graph manipulation tools with tactile feedback

Abstract

The sense of touch is important when interacting and exploring our physical surroundings. Haptic modality has also proved to be a promising feedback modality in user interfaces but there are still virtually no applications taking advantage of the versatile qualities of active touching, i.e. the active exploration of the virtual objects on the screen. Our research is focused on haptic interaction in a highly interactive desktop application. A low-frequency tactile feedback mouse was applied to further enhance the directness and intuitiveness of the interactive graph manipulation tools. The overall positive results of our initial evaluation with the users support our design of the tactile effects. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004.