Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives

Claudio Pacchierotti (1) , Stephen Sinclair (2) , Massimiliano Solazzi (3) , Antonio Frisoli (4) , Vincent Hayward (5) , Domenico Prattichizzo (6)

1 Lagadic - Visual servoing in robotics, computer vision, and augmented reality
2 IDMIL - Input Devices and Music Interaction Laboratory
3 SSSUP - Scuola Universitaria Superiore Sant'Anna [Pisa]
4 CERV - Centre Européen de Réalité Virtuelle
5 ISIR - Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique
6 SIRSlab

In the last decade, we have witnessed a drastic change in the form factor of audio and vision technologies, from heavy and grounded machines to lightweight devices that naturally fit our bodies. However, only recently, haptic systems have started to be designed with wearability in mind. The wearability of haptic systems enables novel forms of communication, cooperation, and integration between humans and machines. Wearable haptic interfaces are capable of communicating with the human wearers during their interaction with the environment they share, in a natural and yet private way. This paper presents a taxonomy and review of wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand, focusing on those systems directly addressing wearability challenges. The paper also discusses the main technological and design challenges for the development of wearable haptic interfaces, and it reports on the future perspectives of the field. Finally, the paper includes two tables summarizing the characteristics and features of the most representative wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand.

Mots clés: cutaneous force feedback; wearable interfaces; wearable devices; tactile force feedback; taxonomy; wearable haptics; fingertip haptics; hand exoskeletons; review

Domaines: Robotique [cs.RO]

Claudio Pacchierotti, Stephen Sinclair, Massimiliano Solazzi, Antonio Frisoli, Vincent Hayward, et al.. Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives. IEEE Transactions on Haptics (ToH), 2017, 10 (4), pp.580 - 600. ⟨10.1109/TOH.2017.2689006⟩. ⟨hal-01616501⟩