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Touch me Gently

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A wearable device that recreates the sensation of human touch

Touch me Gently is a prototype simulator of human touch based on a lightweight and stretchable plaster matrix of Shape-Memory-Alloys (SMA). The wires arranged within the plaster can generate haptics and different forces that simulate the sensation of touch. The current prototype is attached to the forearm and it can produce a smoother transition between tapping, stroking, and squeezing. The result is an on-skin haptic interface that interfaces with the human skin in an unobtrusive way.

Team

  • Denys J.C. Matthies

    Denys J.C. Matthies

    The University of Auckland

    Denys J.C. Matthies is an Associate Professor at the Technical University of Applied Sciences Lübeck. He received the following academic degrees: B.A. Interface Design at the University of Applied Sciences Potsdam, M.Sc. Human-Computer Interaction at the University of Munich, and Dr.-Ing. in Computer Science at the University of Rostock. He underwent a two-years Postdoc at the Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland. During his academic career, he worked at several other research institutes, including the Telekom Innovation Laboratories in Berlin, the NUS HCI Lab in Singapore, and the Fraunhofer IGD Rostock in Germany. Since 2011, Denys conducts and publishes research in the domain of Human-Computer Interaction. His research interest is in augmenting humans with wearable technology also intersecting with the medical domain. Since 03/2020, Denys switched from research to a full-time teaching position.more

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  • Sachith Muthukumarana

    Sachith Muthukumarana

    The University of Auckland

    Sachith is a Ph.D. candidate at the Augmented Human Lab of Auckland Bioengineering Institute at the University of Auckland, New Zealand. He first joined the Augmented Human Lab as a student intern while completing his undergraduate degree. Once he completed his honors degree in Electronics and Telecommunication Engineering, he enrolled at the UoA to pursue his Ph.D. in Human-Computer Interaction. Sachith is passionate about Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Assistive Augmentation, and Haptic Interfaces. Apart from academic interests, he likes sports, food, and traveling.more

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  • Suranga Nanayakkara

    Suranga Nanayakkara

    Suranga Nanayakkara is an Associate Professor at Department of Information Systems & Analytics, School of Computing at National University of Singapore (NUS). Before NUS, he was as Associate Professor at the University of Auckland. He received his PhD in 2010 and BEng in 2005 from the National University of Singapore. He founded the "Augmented Human Lab" to explore ways of designing intelligent human-computer interfaces that extend the limits of our perceptual and cognitive capabilities. more

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