Summary

HaptEx (CHI 2026) investigates how well haptic feedback is perceived while a shoulder exoskeleton is actively actuating the wearer’s body. A controlled study (N=24) compares four haptic channels — poking, proprioceptive, thermal, and vibrotactile — under varying actuation levels, finding that poking is fastest, thermal and proprioceptive are most accurate and noticeable, and thermal feedback aligns best with actuation intensity.

HaptEx(CHI 2026)研究在肩部外骨骼致動時,使用者對觸覺回饋的感知能力。N=24 的控制實驗比較四種觸覺通道,發現戳刺感知最快,熱覺與本體感覺最準確,熱覺與致動強度的搭配感最佳。

Key Points

  • Exoskeletons need to communicate system states (warnings, status) to users — haptic feedback is a natural channel given body contact.
  • Four channels tested: poking (fastest detection), proprioceptive (most accurate, strongest urgency), thermal (most noticeable, best alignment with actuation level), vibrotactile (baseline).
  • Actuation levels affected error rates and noticeability but not response times — the exoskeleton’s own motion doesn’t mask haptic detection latency.
  • Design implication: use thermal for state-aligned feedback (e.g., load level), proprioceptive for urgency signaling.

Insights

The finding that actuation doesn’t affect response time is counterintuitive — you might expect the robot’s own movement to mask or delay haptic perception. The fact that it affects noticeability but not latency suggests haptic attention is processed separately from motor-kinesthetic experience. The thermal/proprioceptive distinction (state vs. urgency) is a directly actionable design principle for exoskeleton notification systems.

Connections

Raw Excerpt

Thermal notifications aligned best with the actuation levels, producing a distinct sensation that blended naturally with movement. In contrast, proprioceptive notifications conveyed the strongest sense of urgency.