Haptic technologies have been used in the entertainment industry, particularly in cinema and video games, for over 50 years, demonstrating clear benefits in terms of user experience and immersion. The term haptic encompasses a range of technologies, including touch-based interfaces (vibro-tactile, electro-tactile, mid-air), force feedback (kinesthetic), and thermal feedback systems. Despite their potential, the high cost of hardware and maintenance has long limited the widespread adoption of haptic devices. In recent years, however, several manufacturers have introduced new, more affordable solutions to enhance user experiences. Examples include Sony’s DualSense controller, Apple’s F1 trailer featuring integrated haptic feedback, Razer’s haptic product line, and the emergence of the MPEG-I standard, which defines formats for haptic content. In line with these developments, this research project aims to explore new forms of interaction using haptic feedback in immersive media such as cinema and video games.
The focus will be on multimodal interactions, i.e., interactions combining multiple sensory feedback channels (audio, visual, and haptic) and their effects on users’ haptic experience (UX and HUX) and engagement. Preliminary user studies have already identified the most promising haptic rendering techniques for enhancing the experience of short animated films. Building on these results, the intern will design, implement, and evaluate new haptic rendering methods in an interactive and immersive environment developed for user perception studies.
Hosting lab: Lab-STICC, UMR CNRS 6285 / Immersive Natural User Interaction Team (INUIT)
The Immersive Natural User Interaction Team (INUIT) is specialized in: human computer interaction, mixed reality, haptic technologies and collaboration in Immersive environnements.
Conduct a literature review of existing techniques for designing multimodal feedback in interactive media. - Propose and implement novel haptic interactions and feedback systems for interactive movies, games, and mixed reality experiences. - Design an experimental protocol and conduct a user study to assess the proposed methods. - Contribute to the writing of a scientific paper for submission to conferences or journals in the haptics or virtual reality communities.
Conducting a state-of-the-art review and formulating a scientific research question. - Writing a scientific article or patent following international academic standards. - Programming in game engines (e.g., Unreal Engine). - Understanding and applying haptic technologies and rendering techniques. - Working with virtual reality and augmented reality systems. - Designing and running user studies for experimental evaluation.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.
