VacuumTouch: Attractive Force Feedback Interface for Haptic Interactive Surface using Air Suction

We present VacuumTouch, a novel haptic interface architecture for touch screens that provides attractive force feedback to the user’s finger. VacuumTouch consists of an air pump and solenoid air valves that connect to the surface of the touch screen and suck the air above the surface where the user’s finger makes contact. VacuumTouch does not require the user to hold or attach additional devices to provide the attractive force, which allows for easy interaction with the surface. This paper introduces the implementation of the VacuumTouch architecture and some applications for enhancement of the graphical user interface, namely a suction button, a suction slider, and a suction dial. The quantitative evaluation was conducted with the suction dial and showed that the attractive force provided by VacuumTouch improved the performance of the dial menu interface and its potential effects. At the end of this paper, we discuss the current prototype’s advantages and limitations, as well as possible improvements and potential capabilities.