The Design of a Scalable Haptic System Used for Impaired People Assistance

The haptic technology (i.e. Touch based interfaces) provides new means for the human machine interaction. Haptic devices can make the interaction experience richer for healthy individuals and can augment the perceptions of impaired people. This paper presents the design of a haptic system wirelessly controlled by a remote application that runs on a computer. The hardware and software architecture of the system are thoroughly explained. The designed system is scalable, allowing for easy addition or removal of vibration motors in order to fulfill various research goals or deployment scenarios. The vibration patterns are software selectable making the system very flexible regarding the haptic sensations that can be induced or generated. The designed haptic system may be successfully used in research activities to study the effects of application of haptic technologies for impaired people assistance.