Surface haptics is an emerging branch in the prosperous haptic market with widespread interest and high expectations, thanks to the ubiquity of the touchscreen. While demonstrations of surface haptics through variable friction, active forcing and localized vibration have been successful with various prototypes presented and startup companies founded, the commercialization of this technology is greatly hindered by issues like power consumption and inconsistent performance to user and environmental variability. These seemingly technical issues originate from the complicated interactions of surface textures and surface properties of fingertips and countersurfaces. 

Our lab focuses on understanding and decoupling the physics including contact, capillary, electric field, lubrication, contamination, and air bearing in the touch interface with a multi-physics approach. This knowledge will further guide the design of surface textures at nanoscale to reduce the sensitivity of these devices to variabilities like sweating, humidity, and temperature change, and thus facilitate the development of next-generation surface haptic devices with better consistency in performance and lower power consumption.

>    Yma@polyu.edu.hk

>    Department of Mechanical Engineering

>    Research Institute for Intelligent Wearable Systems (RI-IWEAR)

>    FG 604, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University,

>    Hung Hom, Kowloon, HK, P.R.C

>    (+852) 2766 7823