Software Tools for Programming High-Quality Haptic Interfaces

Haptics refers to the sense of touch. The challenge of designing and integrating high-quality programmable haptic interfaces requires technical knowledge, usability experience and software tools. This paper provides design guidelines for software tools intended to facilitate the design and integration of programmable haptic controls and describes a suite of fundamental tools to which the design guidelines have been applied. Immersion Studio® for Automotive (ISA) is a user-friendly software application for interactively designing and programming haptic sensations. ISA supports a large variety of devices including 1D and 2D force feedback devices. Together with the Immersion API for Automotive and firmware, ISA constitutes the basis for creating high-quality programmable haptic systems.