Research Questions
How can we use the haptic sense to create a form of communication? How intuitive can this communication be and how fast can we develop automatisms through haptic feedback?
ESports meets Football
To discover the potential of using the tactile sense for communication, the first prop is a device for controlling a football player. This turned out to be a potential game that combines esports with real sports. Instead of controlling a computer-animated player, a real player can be controlled.
Team Project with Liam Arteona, 2021
Methodology
Hands-on approach to designing, that focuses on exploration through physical experimentation and rapid prototyping.
Why Football?
Football is a fast game where quick reaction is required. Therefore it is the ideal starting point to discover the potential of the neglected tactile sense. Furthermore, it turned out that the silent and unusual communication has a big fun factor.
Working Prototype
The prototype could be used already in a real 7a-side football game.
Controller:
The conventional and well-known PS5 controller was physically hacked by attaching an Arduino Uno and implementing buttons. For transmitting information, a NRF module is used.
Wearable device:
The wearable consists of four 6V vibration motors, an Arduino Nano and an NRF module to receive the information from the controller.
How it works:
Different buttons on the controller are assigned certain vibration patterns that the player must know beforehand. For example, if the control button X is pressed and the joystick is pointing to the left, the football player‘s left vibration motor will vibrate in a certain pattern and the football player knows that a pass to the left side is wanted form the controller.
Field Test
The test of the concept encountered a wide variety of opinions from observers. However, by using a PS5 controller, we could also let strangers play, which was a lot of fun for the participants. It also showed that with brief and simple instruction they could easily use it.
This is a and the concept of the wearable haptic device might be explored for other applications.