Fwd: Seminar Speaker - May 30 - Wiertlewski

[M. Ani Hsieh]

FYI

Robotics Seminar Series
Electrical and Computer Engineering Seminar

Title: Rendering realistic tactile features at the fingertip
Speaker: Dr. Michael Wiertlewski, Neuroscience and Robotics Laboratory, Northwestern University
Location: MEM Seminar Room, Curtis 162

Date & Time: Thurs, 5/30, 3:30PM

Abstract
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Dexterous manipulation and precise interaction with our environment rely on our ability to perceive fine details from the surfaces we are touching. The physical properties of a touched surface, such as its texture, shape or friction, are recovered from the deformation of the skin during the interaction with an object. In contrast, with the rise of touch screens for human-machine interaction, the physicality of the interface has disappeared, as we interact only through a rigid flat surface.

This talk will describe technologies that emulate the texture and shape of a real object via a flat touchscreen. The first part of the talk will describe how the complex mechanical interaction between a natural texture (e.g. sandpaper, velvet) and the fingertip can be captured. Vibrations that the fingertip produces when it slides on an explored texture provides strong cues about the topography of the surface.   Reproducing such vibrations in correlation with user motions can elicit similar sensations to those felt when exploring a real texture.

The second part of the talk will describe a second way of presenting these mechanical vibrations, and the possibility that it offers for rendering other dimensions of the tactile interaction, such as shape and friction. This approach is based on devices that use ultrasonic vibration to dynamically modify friction between the finger and the plate. When the friction is modulated as a function of the position of the finger, tactile shape, texture and stickiness can be rendered in a realistic fashion. The underlying physics of the interaction as well as the design of such devices will be discussed

Speaker Bio
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Michael Wiertlewski is currently postdoctoral researcher at the Neuroscience and Robotics Laboratory (NxR) at Northwestern University. He received his PhD from the University Pierre and Marie Curie in Paris, France pursued under the under the auspices of the Laboratoire d’Intégration des Systèmes et des Technologies of the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique (CEA-LIST). His doctoral work received the 2011 Eurohaptics Society PhD award. His research interests include the design of tactile devices that provide realistic sensations at the fingertip, the biomechanics of living tissues, and aspects of the tribology of the skin