Biometric Perception Interface

Collaboration with Jing Yan, Yin Yu - Soft Robotics, Wearable, 2018

We foresee a need for exploration and experimentation in haptic data representation in the context of affective interpersonal communication. We propose a set of biomorphic designs of soft robotic prosthetic devices that provide users a unique haptic experience dissimilar to the conventional optical reception of biometric data representation. We fabricate pneumatic soft device as wearable interface that can fit on human body, using commodity materials and electronics, such as pulse sensor and low-pressure air pump. Extend a user’s exteroceptive field like artificial organs, the devices we are showing and their capacity to physically link two human bodies at the same time open up a new way of intimate but distant communication without direct skin contact of the users. We name this mode of communication Biometric Perception, associated with a hardware interface of interconnected components.

Abstract + Publication

Soft robotics are primarily composed of soft materials with low moduli which are close to that of biological materials. This unique feature leads to its potential of being utilized on human body as wearable devices that can directly stay and interact with the user’s skin, further expanding the application scenario of robot as a haptic agent of interpersonal communication. With the possibility of conveying intimate messages while maintaining a desired physical distance, a skin-contact based remote communication can create a new form of intimate relationship for people. We present Biometric Perception Interface, a wearable perception extension interface that measures and converts pulse into haptic actuation, and allows users to record and playback pulse data from and to their bodies. We demonstrate three inter-connected components of Biometric Perception Interface: Memorizer, Choker, and Antenna. Additionally, Biometric Perception Interface challenges the common practices of visual memory and quantified abstraction of biological phenomena, and proposes an alternative interpersonal intimate communication mediated by soft-robotics.

Paper Published:

Mengyu Chen, Jing Yan, Yin Yu. Biometric Perception Interface. International Workshop on Haptic and Audio Interaction Design - HAID2019, Mar 2019, Lille, France.