Towards Better Utilization of Haptic Interaction in Visualization: Design Space and Knob Prototype

Abstract

Humans encounter a vast array of sensory stimuli in their everyday lives. However, many visualization techniques primarily utilize visual feedback, which may disregard certain intricate details. Relying on a single visual channel may overlook complex layouts. However, how haptic force feedback can be used to assist visualization remained under-explored. In this work, we initially conducted a literature review to identify potential problems in the visualization of large datasets and engaged in discussions with domain experts to explore the potential of haptic force feedback and visual collision representation. Subsequently, we designed an innovative haptic force feedback knob, which included 3 primary modules and 29 elements. To evaluate the clarity and usefulness of this design space, we conducted a workshop and devised “recommended solutions” for the identified visualization problems. Finally, we implemented a prototype of the haptic force feedback knob and assessed its performance on scatterplot and parallel coordinate plot tasks using large datasets. The results indicated that the knob prototype could reduce visual strain and enhance the efficiency of visualization tasks.

Keywords:

• Human-centered computing
• Human-computer interaction
• User studies

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 https://gopher943.github.io/F2vis-Design-space/

2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q76dMggUH1M

3 https://github.com/scottbez1/smartknob

Additional information

Funding

This work received financial support from the Zhejiang Provincial Natural Science Foundation of China under grant numbers LR23F020003 and LTGG23F020005, the National Natural Science Foundation of China with grant numbers 62372411 and 62036009, as well as the Fundamental Research Funds for the Provincial Universities of Zhejiang, allocated under grant number RF-B2023006.

Notes on contributors

Gefei Zhang

Gefei Zhang is a PhD student at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China. She received BE degree in education technology from Zhejiang University of Technology. Her main research interests include human-computer interaction and data visualization.

Guodao Sun

Guodao Sun is a professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China. He received the PhD degree in control science and engineering from Zhejiang University of Technology. His main research interests are urban visualization and visual analytics of social media.

Zifeng Sun

Zifeng Sun is currently a Master’s student in the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Techonology, HangZhou, China. He received his BE degrees in automotive engineering from Zhejiang University of Technology. His main research interests are human-computer interaction and data mining.

Jingwei Tang

Jingwei Tang is currently a PhD student in the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Techonology, HangZhou, China. He received his BE degrees in communication engineering from Zhejiang University of Technology. His main research interests are data mining and information visualization.

Li Jiang

Li Jiang is an associate professor at the College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, Hangzhou, China. She received the PhD degree in Computer Science and Technology from Zhejiang University of Technology. Her main research interests are urban visualization and visual analytics of social media.

Ronghua Liang

Ronghua Liang received the PhD in computer science from Zhejiang University in 2003. He is currently a Professor of Computer Science, Zhejiang University of Technology, China. He has published more than 50 papers in leading international journals and conferences including IEEE TKDE, IEEE TVCG, IEEE VIS, IJCAI, AAAI.