Skin stroking haptic feedback glove for assisting blinds in navigation

Assistive navigation systems for the blind commonly use speech to convey directions to their users. However, this is problematic for short range navigation systems that need to provide fine but diligent guidance in order to avoid obstacles. For this task, we have compared haptic and audio feedback systems under the NASA-TLX protocol to analyze the additional cognitive load that they place on users. Both systems are able to guide the users through a test obstacle course. However, for white cane users, auditory feedback results in a 22 times higher cognitive load than haptic feedback. This discrepancy in cognitive load was not found on blindfolded users, thus we argue against evaluating navigation systems solely with blindfolded users.

Haptic technology has the potential to enhance education, especially for those with severe visual impairments (those that are blind or who have low vision), by presenting abstract concepts through the sense of touch. Despite the advances in haptic research, little research has been conducted in the area of haptic user behavior toward the establishment of haptic interface development and design conventions. To advance haptic research closer to this goal, this study examines haptic user behavior data collected from 9 participants utilizing a haptic learning system, the Heat Temperature Module. ANOVA results showed that differences in the amount of haptic feedback result in significant differences in user behavior, indicating that higher levels of haptic friction feedback result in higher user interaction proportions of data. Results also suggested that minimal thresholds of friction haptic feedback can be established for a desired level of minimum user interaction data proportions, however; more research is needed to establish such thresholds.KeywordsHaptic User InterfaceThermal DeviceUser BehaviorInclusive Design

Extended Reality (XR)—encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR)—has emerged as a transformative technology in the domains of telehealth and remote surgical training. This review critically examines XR’s growing integration into clinical practice, with a focus on system interoperability, advanced haptic feedback technologies, and the implementation of virtual patient safety protocols. XR platforms offer immersive, real-time environments that replicate complex medical procedures, enabling high-fidelity surgical simulation and improving procedural accuracy. Interoperability between XR systems and telehealth infrastructures remains a challenge due to disparate standards, data formats, and latency issues. Meanwhile, recent advancements in haptic systems have enhanced tactile realism, allowing trainees to gain precise motor control and procedural confidence. Additionally, virtual patient safety frameworks—such as real-time error tracking, biometric monitoring, and protocol-driven interventions—are essential to ensure clinical accountability and reduce training-associated risks. The paper synthesizes findings from current implementations, evaluates technical constraints, and proposes a roadmap for scalable, secure, and clinically validated XR deployment in healthcare education and remote surgery.

In this study, a haptic feedback system based on AR glasses and electrical stimulation technology is designed and implemented to assess users’ spatial imagination ability. The system builds a virtual environment through Unity, combining the immersive vision of AR glasses with the haptic feedback of electrical stimulation hardware to capture hand movements and simulate the sense of touch in real time. Twelve subjects were recruited to explore the effectiveness of haptic recognition of geometric shapes and its association with spatial imagination ability. The results showed that shape complexity and size significantly affected the judgement results. In addition, the total number of correct trials on the experimental task showed a strong positive correlation with scores on the Spatial Imagination Ability Questionnaire (SIAQ), validating the validity of the paradigm as a measurement tool for spatial imagination ability. This study provides a new method for the optimisation of haptic feedback systems and the assessment of spatial cognitive ability, which can be further enhanced by expanding the sample and optimising the design in the future

Virtual Reality (VR) environment has been gaining significance and it is now possible for one to touch the virtual objects and also transform them with hands. But it requires much more than a fast graphic board and an immersive visual display to realize the VR. For tasks like multiple-finger interaction, it requires a force-feedback device which generally is acquired from a wearable 'haptic glove'. The recent progress in the VR market has resulted in the sophistication of efforts in this technology. Already existing haptic gloves provide only generic haptic feedback to the user, thus, the user cannot differentiate the texture of the objects that he/she is interacting within the virtual environment. To overcome this drawback, the proposed system uses machine learning complemented with a fuzzy logic system to provide distinctive haptic feedback based on the object textures such as coarse, smooth, etc., movement of the user's hand and its speed. This system is designed to be used as an add-on with the existing VR Gloves so that user's hand movement tracking data collected by the existing system can be reused by the proposed system. This eliminates the need for additional Inertial measurement sensors, thereby reducing the costs of the overall project. This paper presents a new system that enhances the haptic feedback system by using a differential mechanism based on the texture of the object that can be rendered in VR. This application paves a path for advanced decision-making assistance in haptic surgeries in modern medicine.

Robot-assisted minimally invasive surgery (MIS) has countless benefits over open surgery, from shorter re- covery times and lower risk procedures for the patient to higher accuracy and broader capabilities for the surgeon [1]. However, a significant detriment to these procedures is that current systems lack haptic feedback. The lack of haptic feedback in MIS forces the surgeon to depend merely on visual cues, such as the deformation of tissue under load, to estimate the forces [1]. The likely outcome of misreading these cues is torn tissue, patient discomfort or broken sutures [2]. Moreover, haptic feed- back is specifically vital for robot-assisted endoscopy procedures. A recent study evaluating an Endoscopic Operation Robot (EOR) concluded that haptic feedback is beneficial in remote manipulation of flexible endo- scopes. When haptic feedback was absent there were more incidences of overstretching of sigmoid colon in a colonoscopy training model [3]. This work presents a soft robotic glove that provides haptic feedback for endoscopic procedures (Fig. 1, A). In our previous work, we introduced a soft robotic sleeve [4] that can detect forces between a colonoscope and colon walls during navigation. The glove receives force input from the soft robotic sleeve wrapped around the colonoscope (Fig. 1, B). Any incident force on the sleeve, during endoscopic navigation, is relayed to the surgeon as haptic feedback through proportional inflation of the glove’s pneumatic actuators.

Haptic guidance has previously been employed to improve human performance in control tasks. This paper presents an experiment to evaluate whether haptic feedback can be used to help humans learn a compensatory tracking task. In the experiment, participants were divided into two groups: the haptic group and the no-aid group. The haptic group performed a first training phase with haptic feedback and a second evaluation phase without haptic feedback. The no-aid group performed the whole experiment without haptic feedback. Results indicated that haptic group achieved better performance than the no-aid group during the training phase. Furthermore, performance of haptic group did not worsen in the evaluation phase when the haptic feedback was turned off. Moreover, the no-aid group needed more experimental trials to achieve similar performance to the haptic group. These findings indicate that haptic feedback helped participants learn the task quicker.

A haptic gas pedal feedback system was developed at Delft University of Technology that translated the separation to a lead vehicle into continuous haptic cues (force, stiffness) on the gas pedal. During normal car-following situations, the haptic feedback cues were sufficient to reduce control activity and improve car-following performance. However, in more critical following situations drivers use the brake pedal to maintain separation with the lead vehicle. A deceleration control algorithm was designed that, in addition to the haptic feedback, provided increased deceleration upon release of the gas pedal during critical car-following situations. The deceleration control algorithm was tested in a fixed-base driving simulator experiment. Deceleration control improved car-following performance while reducing driver brake pedal control activity in the conditions tested.

Visually-impaired people have difficulties to move around in unknown environments. It is even more challenging to do sports such as running. In this study, a wearable haptic guidance system has been developed that can help visually-impaired people to navigate on lanes of any running track individually without requiring external help. The system uses an RGB-D camera and a microcontroller to detect the lanes and to calculate steering angles for navigation. A skin stretch method is used to transfer the steering angles to the user as haptic feedback around the waist. Two user tests were conducted with four participants (one visually-impaired and three able-bodied volunteers) in order to evaluate the proposed system. In the first test, the participants were asked to identify the given haptic feedback on their waist while standing still. In the second test, the system as a whole was evaluated by asking the participants to run the 400 metres on a lane of a standard outdoor running track with the help of the haptic guidance system. The able-bodied participants were blindfolded during the tests. Number of lane violations, number of directional warnings, and total time of run were recorded. Results show that the participants distinguished steering angles with an accuracy of 83.3 %. The participants were also able to complete the 400 metres with reduced lane violations and directional warnings than the reference runs performed without the haptic guidance. Considering these results, we can conclude that the proposed haptic guidance system is a promising tool for visually-impaired individuals who wants to run on a running track alone.

Wearable robots have been mostly designed as exoskeletons, with segments and joints corresponding to those of the person they are coupled with. Exoskeletons are mainly employed to augment human body force and precision capabilities, or for rehabilitation purposes. More recently, new wearable robots resembling additional robotic limbs have been developed thanks to the progress in miniaturization and efficiency of mechanical and sensing components. However, wearable robotic extra limbs presented in the literature lack of effective haptic feedback systems. In this paper, we present a robotic extra finger coupled with a vibrotactile ring interface. The human user is able to control the motion of the robotic finger through a switch placed on the ring, while being provided with vibrotactile feedback about the forces exerted by the robotic finger on the environment. To understand how to control the vibrotactile interface to evoke the most effective cutaneous sensations, we executed perceptual experiments to evaluate its absolute and differential thresholds. We also carried out a pick-and-place experiment with ten subjects. Haptic feedback significantly improved the performance in task execution in terms of completion time, exerted force, and perceived effectiveness. All subjects preferred experimental conditions employing haptic feedback with respect to those not providing any force feedback.

Minimally invasive surgical procedures using long instruments have profoundly influenced modern surgery by decreasing invasiveness, therefore minimizing patient recovery time and cost. However, surgical procedures using long tools inserted through small ports on the body deprive surgeons of the sense of touch (haptics), depth perception, dexterity, and straightforward hand eye coordination that they are accustomed to in open procedures. While there have been significant advances in almost all of the above areas, haptic feedback systems for robot-assisted surgery are lacking in development. In this paper we present: 1) the development of accurate robot-arm dynamic model (using model-based control) with the goal of minimizing unwanted tool-tissue interaction forces in robot-assisted surgery, 2) the development of an ergonomic 7-DOF haptic feedback system, and 3) the recently developed laparoscopic grasper with force feedback capability attached to the end of the robot arm and controlled by the haptic device.

Haptic feedback is often suggested to complement visual information through the sense of touch to improve efficiency and safety in the tele-operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. It is, however, of great importance that the improvements are not at the cost of higher operator workload and control activity, which strongly depends on how haptic feedback is presented to the operator. This paper describes the study on two different techniques of haptic feedback for collision avoidance in the tele-operation of a UAV helicopter. The first technique considers the addition of an external force offset generated by an artificial force field, whereas the second technique considers the addition of an external spring constant. The study involves a theoretical analysis and an experimental evaluation of the two haptic feedback implementations. Experiment results indicate that the use of the external spring constant outperforms the force offset. Operator performance improves and workload decreases with equivalent control activity and level of safety with respect to the use of force offset.

We present a haptic teleoperation system capable of steering flexible needles under ultrasound imaging toward a target. With respect to similar works, this approach enables intuitive control of the needle motion while providing the user with 3D navigation and needle tip cutting force using a combination of kinesthetic and vibrotactile haptic feedback. The needle is tracked during the insertion using a 3D ultrasound probe. A friction estimation algorithm extracts salient information about the cutting force at the needle tip from a force sensor placed at the needle base. A grounded haptic interface enables natural 6-DoF control of the needle motion while providing kinesthetic feedback, and a wearable cutaneous interface on the forearm provides distributed vibrotactile sensations. We carried out a human subject study to validate the insertion system in a gelatine phantom and compare seven different feedback techniques. The best performance was registered when providing navigation cues through kinesthetic feedback and needle tip cutting force through cutaneous vibrotactile feedback. In this modality, results showed an 87% accuracy improvement with respect to providing no haptic feedback at all.

This paper presents a conceptual study in designing a haptic feedback controller that can be implemented on a robotic arm that can be used for remotely collecting sample in contamination area, especially when the state of the sample is extremely delicate. The haptic robotic arm will allow the user to control the movement of the robot arm as well as giving touch sensation merely as a human arm can do. The objectives of this project are to propose a controller that uses a haptic system approach that is implemented and tested using low-cost, off-the-shelf microcontroller. The simple two-servo-motors test setup is used to demonstrate the feedback of the proposed haptic configuration. The results show that the proposed haptic system manage to react accordingly with any perturbation that acted upon the controlled servo motor that indicates the sense of touch (feedback) back to corresponding `human' servo motors. These responses indicate a low-cost approach to create a haptic feedback system that can be further expanded for more complicated system such as human fingers for grabbing a delicate object.

The usability of virtual reality (VR) controller interfaces are often complex and difficult for first time users. Most controllers provide minimal feedback which relegates the potential for heightened interaction and feedback within virtual experiences. This research explores how haptic technology systems partnered with VR can deliver immersive interactions between user and virtual environment (VE). This research involves the development of a haptic glove interface prototype that incorporates a force feedback and vibrotactile feedback system. It focuses on determining a workflow that communicates in real-time user interaction and environmental feedback using Unreal Engine and the produced haptic glove system. Testing and calibrating the prototype feedback system provided a baseline for developers to rationalise and improve accuracy of current real-time virtual feedback systems. The evaluation of this research in industry unfolds new technical knowledge for implementing a wider range of haptic technologies within VR. This further development would involve reviewing the usability and interaction standards for VR users in the design process.