Spurring Innovation in Spatial Haptics: How Open-Source Hardware Can Turn Creativity Loose

This article discusses an open-hardware robotics kit approach for designing spatial haptic interfaces. Our development of an open-source haptic device kit called WoodenHaptics, for which blueprints have been made available online for free download, enables interaction designers with little electromechanical experience to modify, manufacture, and assemble fully working haptic devices. This article addresses the processes of open-sourcing spatial haptic devices by covering the key mechanical and electrical principles needed for high-fidelity haptic rendering, the mathematical foundations for spatial haptics, the challenges to open-sourcing software and hardware and teaching it to different communities, and the history of the WoodenHaptics project itself.