Research
We explore the intersection of haptics, human-computer interaction, virtual reality, and multisensory AI to augment how people perceive and interact with digital and physical worlds.
From Perception to Emotion
Investigating how humans perceive and interpret sensory stimuli, and the mechanisms connecting tactile perception to emotional experiences.
We study human psychophysics and cross-modal perception across auditory, visual, and tactile channels. By understanding perceptual thresholds, simultaneity, and affective responses across the body, we establish perceptual models that bridge physical tactile stimulation and rich emotional user experiences.
- Cross-Modal Psychophysics: Investigating audio-tactile and audiovisual-haptic simultaneity, pitch matching, and intensity perception across the human body.
- Affective Haptics & Tactons: Designing expressive vibrotactile patterns (e.g., wearable wrist haptics) to convey emotion, personality, and semantic nuances.
- Whole-Body Tactile Perception: Modeling spatial and temporal tactile illusions such as seamless phantom sensations and perceived intensity variations under contact force.
Multisensory Signal Generation
Leveraging AI to automatically generate synchronized haptic and tactile signals beyond traditional audio and video.
Creating high-quality haptic effects for games, VR, and 4D films typically requires labor-intensive manual authoring. We develop intelligent, real-time cross-modal rendering algorithms that automatically synthesize context-aware haptic and motion feedback directly from audiovisual streams.
- Real-Time Sound-to-Haptic Conversion: Deep learning and reinforcement learning approaches for extracting semantic and physical events from game audio to drive multimodal haptic vests and controllers in real time.
- Physical Interaction Inference & Human-in-the-Loop AI: Inferring physical interactions from audiovisual media and aligning generated tactile feedback with human perceptual preferences.
- Automated 4D Motion & Full-Body Haptics: Camera-space and content-driven synthesis of motion chair and full-body haptic effects for immersive gameplay and media viewing.
Next-Generation Interfaces
Designing human-computer and XR interfaces that enhance both immersion and manipulation performance.
We design novel haptic hardware, wearable systems, and physiological sensing interfaces that expand how users interact with virtual environments and tangible objects.
- VR/XR Haptic Systems: Full-body and wearable haptic interfaces that deliver directional, semantic, and realistic physical feedback in virtual reality.
- Physiological & Biosignal-Driven Interaction: Utilizing EMG (electromyography) and biomechanical modeling to render self-induced virtual weight and force sensations during natural hand and arm movements.
- Tangible & Surface Haptics: Vibration-mediated object recognition and virtual surface rendering (stiffness, damping, and contact transients) for intuitive physical interactions.