The Northwestern University engineers have created the first haptic device that gives “human resolution,” that means it can precisely match the sensing abilities of the human fingertip. Simply put, this a fingertip-powered wearable something that is long-promised realism.
This new haptic wearable is called VoxeLite, an ultra-thin, lightweight, flexible, device that recreates the fingertip’s natural ability to detect texture, motion and vibration with unbelievable clarity.
VoxeLite-A New Haptic Wearable
The fingertip-powered wearable looks like a bandage, the device gently wraps around a fingertip to give digital touch exactly like fingertip.
According to Sylvia Tan, a PhD student at Northwestern and lead author of the study published in Science Advances, “Touch is the last major sense without a true digital interface”. She added, “We have technologies that make things look and sound real. Now, we want to make textures and tactile sensations feel real.”
VoxeLite Digital Touch
VoxeLite is a soft, millimeter-thin patch that wraps around a fingertip like a Band-Aid. Inside that are arrays of tiny, individually controlled “nodes.” Each note can press, vibrate, and tilt at up to 800 times per second, generating tactile “pixels” of touch that gives you fingertip like precision.
Each node is a marvel of microengineering: a soft rubber dome lined with a conductive layer and inner electrode. When an electric signal is applied, electrostatic forces cause the node to grip and indent the skin, much like the way a rubbed balloon clings to a wall. The effect can range from a faint tickle to the sensation of dragging your finger over denim or mesh.
VoxeLite’s dense arrays reach up to 110 nodes per square centimeter, and its soft materials conform seamlessly to the finger. It is “haptically transparent,” Tan said, so thin that it lets users feel both real and virtual surfaces at once.
Individual Pixels For Fingertip Like Touch
Each node comprises a soft rubber dome, conductive outer layer and hidden inner electrode. When a slight voltage is applied, it generates electroadhesion. VoxeLite applies electrostatic forces in a precise, controlled way to make each tiny node “grip” a surface and tilt to press into skin. This generates a highly localized mechanical force, so each “pixel” of touch pushes the skin on a fingertip. Higher voltages increase friction during movement, producing more pronounced tactile cues to simulate the feeling of a rough surface. On the other hand, lower voltages create less friction and, therefore, the sensation of a slipperier surface.
VoxeLite for Real Accessibility
According to Tan , “A big goal was to make it very lightweight so you aren’t distracted by it”. Adding, “And [to make] something that we call ‘haptically transparent’ — that means that even when you’re wearing it, you can still perceive the real world, so you can perform everyday tasks.”
This innovative haptic wearable can change how who are blind or have low vision interact with the digital world.
VoxeLite is still tethered to lab electronics, but its creators are already planning wireless versions. The team hopes to eventually integrate it with smartphones, tablets, or game controllers. “Just like earbuds use Bluetooth to interact with our devices,” Tan said, “VoxeLite could someday perhaps sync with devices to transform flat, smooth screens into textured interfaces.”
So far, engineers have digitized light and sound. VoxeLite may be the first real step toward digitizing touch. If successful, we might soon reach into the virtual world.
“What makes this most exciting is combining spatial and temporal resolution with wearability,” Tan said. “People tend to focus on one of these three aspects because each one is such a difficult challenge. Our lab already solved temporal resolution with electroadhesion. Then, my challenge was to make it spatially distributed and wearable. It did take a while to get here. Now, we’re running studies to understand how humans actually receive and perceive this tactile information.”
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