Get a grip on your part’s haptics

Processors and parts designers attending the K show this fall have a golden opportunity to put a new haptic test through its paces. By monitoring how test persons touch an object, and comparing this with the stated objective perceptions, the test can help determine if a part's haptics really are as pleasing to potential customers as its designer had hoped.

Designers can try the haptic test during the upcoming K 2010 tradeshow.

The haptic test and other presentations and interactive exhibits from the fields of biomimetics and haptics are to be found at the stand of the Fraunhofer UMSICHT research center (7.1/A22). Other developments the researchers hope to present include ones involving self-sharpening cutting tools, self-healing materials, the biomimetic approach to selective laser sintering, and the abrasion resistance of polymer surfaces using reptiles' skin as a model.

For the newly developed haptic test station: While test subjects touch and rate the haptic qualities of a test material, their skin condition, the way they move their fingers, and the frictional heat are measured via IR-thermography, video camera, 3D force plate, a speed-detecting device, as well as a moisture and elasticity meter. A test design for grip improvement is included as well. The objective data is afterwards correlated with the stated subjective perceptions to give the tester an idea about an application-specific haptic design of materials and surfaces. —[email protected]