Wearable tech that helps you navigate by touch | Keith Kirkland

TL;DR

This content discusses the concept of haptic design and its potential to revolutionize our sensory experiences.

Transcript

Do you remember your first kiss? Or that time you burned the roof of your mouth on a hot slice of pizza? What about playing tag or duck, duck, goose as a child? These are all instances where we're using touch to understand something. And it's the basis of haptic design. "Haptic" means of or relating to the sense of touch. And we've all been using t... Read More

Key Insights

• 🤝 Haptic design is based on the sense of touch, which we have been using our entire lives to understand and communicate.
• 🖥️ Touch can be simulated through technology, such as vibrating motors and motion-capture data, to teach movement without the need for an instructor.
• 📝 The development of a haptic language is crucial for effectively communicating information through touch. ⌚ The Wayband, a wrist-wearable device, demonstrates the intuitive nature of haptic navigation cues, benefiting both sighted and visually impaired individuals.
• ⚡ Touch is a highly sensitive communication channel, often underutilized compared to other sensory modalities.
• 🌍 Haptic design has the potential to create a universal language that transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries.
• 🛑 Designing haptic experiences goes beyond assigning arbitrary meanings to vibrations, requiring deep empathy and understanding of human experiences.
• 💡 Haptic design has the power to expand human abilities in both physical and virtual environments, changing how we perceive and interact with the world around us.

Questions & Answers

Q: What is haptic design?

Haptic design refers to the use of touch and the sense of touch in understanding and communicating information. It encompasses the design of products, devices, and experiences that involve tactile sensations.

Q: How did touch help improve posture in the speaker's story?

The speaker's friend used touch to communicate how to improve the speaker's posture. By placing her thumb on the lower back and index finger on the shoulder, she instinctively helped the speaker sit up straight. This demonstrated the power of touch in guiding movement and enhancing body awareness.

Q: What was the missing component in developing haptic communication?

The missing component in developing haptic communication was a universally agreed-upon haptic language to effectively convey information. Without a standardized language, it was challenging to determine how to communicate specific actions or movements through touch.

Q: What was the first device created by the speaker's company?

The first device created by the speaker's company was called the Wayband. It was a wrist-wearable device that used vibrating cues to guide a user's orientation towards a destination. This device was initially developed as a means of getting people out of their phones and back into the real world.

Q: Who were the main beneficiaries of the speaker's work on haptic design?

The main beneficiaries of the speaker's work on haptic design were people who had little or no sight. By developing tactile navigation systems, such as the Wayband, the speaker and their team aimed to optimize the blind experience and enable visually impaired individuals to navigate complex routes without reliance on sighted assistance.

Summary & Key Takeaways

• Haptic design is based on using touch to understand and communicate information.

• The speaker developed a wrist-wearable device called Wayband that uses vibrating cues to navigate users.

• Wayband helped a blind person run 15 miles of the New York City Marathon without sighted assistance, proving the potential of touch-based navigation.