Haptixel: Encoding Data through Cutaneous Force-based Encountered-Type Fingertip Haptics
Year: 2026
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: Data visualization benefits from non-visual cues to enable people to understand information by engaging with it through multimodality, yet most approaches rely on cumbersome technologies or large scale artifacts, making them difficult to adapt to dynamic or complex datasets. In this paper, we explore the use of cutaneous haptics as a lightweight quantitative channel for visualization tasks, allowing users to feel data and interact with it dynamically. We present Haptixel, an open-source DIY encountered-type wearable providing force-feedback on the users’ fingertips’ pulp. We propose an interaction framework illustrating how Haptixel can be used to complement visualization tasks through combinations of force levels and contact types. We evaluate our approach in a pixel-art-like VR user study (n=16) where pixels color/height are associated to forces as a univariate value mapping. Results show that participants can retrieve information with Haptixel, and significantly discriminate 3D-data with at least four levels of forces; suggesting that cutaneous force-feedback can function for quantitative distinctions in visualization tasks.
Institutions: Universidad Pública de Navarra (UPNA), Pôle Léonard de Vinci, Ecole Supérieure d'Ingénieurs Léonard de Vinci, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Institut de Recherche en Informatique et Systèmes Aléatoires, Centre Inria de l'Université de Rennes, Institut national de recherche en sciences et technologies du numérique, Université Paris-Saclay
Language: English
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W7134077144