List to demonstrate new smart HMI system at CES 2018

List, a research institute of CEA Tech focused on smart digital systems, will demonstrate a new human-machine interaction system at CES 2018 that enhances the immersive and awareness-raising capacities of joysticks and video-game controllers, among other applications.

The MATISS system transmits high-quality information via haptic-based touch, an interactive, kinesthetic technology that transfers information to humans through vibration, resistive force, motion and other physical sensations. The demo will feature a rotary knob that is dynamic, fully programmable in real time and that can reproduce force-feedback sensations thanks to the use of a phase transition fluid (from liquid to solid and vice versa), which enhances user experience.

In video games, for example, users receive haptic feedback, or force feedback, via resistance to manipulation transmitted by the joystick based on what users are seeing on the screen. On tablet screens or smartphone displays, haptic feedback can create the sense of texture on the smooth surface.

List’s technology is highly transparent, meaning users manipulating a joystick or other control feel no mechanical friction to remind them they are using a device.

At CES, the MATISS demonstration will allow users to turn the rotary knob while watching a computer screen. They will experience unlocking a safe, inserting a needle in a person for an injection and guiding a rolling ball through a setting with various obstacles.

“The haptic demonstration faithfully reproduces force-feedback sensations with a passive brake system that provides resistance,” said Moustapha Hafez, head of the Sensory and Ambient Interfaces Laboratory at CEA List. “The knob transmits concrete, conscious information to the user, while enhancing the immersive sensation of a simulator or video game.”

In addition to gaming and the applications demonstrated at CES, applications for MATTIS technology range from transportation to construction to manufacturing. Sensors provide information on surroundings and the haptic system creates force feedback that guides the operator. These applications include:

• Driving or operating assistance for cars, buses, trucks, agricultural vehicles, construction machinery, planes, helicopters and submarines… to guarantee safe operation in response to obstacles detected by sensors
• Controlling drones and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) as the operator feels the effect of wind and proximity to obstacles
• Controlling of a variety of robot types remotely
• Training surgeons for medical procedures using virtual reality

“This fully reprogrammable haptic-feedback system is flexible for many applications in transportation, industry, medicine and gaming,” said Hafez. “With this technology, we are able to simulate high fidelity, rich haptic feedback for machinery-or-equipment users and operators, and we can reprogram different types of interactions immediately.”