HaptiStylus: A Novel Stylus for Conveying Movement and Rotational Torque Effects

With the emergence of pen-enabled tablets and mobile devices, stylus-based interaction has been receiving increasing attention. Unfortunately, styluses available on the market today are all passive instruments that are primarily used for writing and pointing. The article describes a novel stylus, HaptiStylus, which is capable of conveying certain vibrotactile and inertial haptic effects to the user. The stylus is equipped with two vibration actuators at each end that are used to create a tactile sensation of up and down movement along the stylus. The stylus is also embedded with a DC motor, which helps create a sense of bidirectional rotational torque along the pen. Psychophysical experimental results and practical application use-case studies show that the proposed device can effectively convey movement and rotational torque information to the user.