A Cut-and-Paste Haptic Interface

When it comes to haptic feedback, vibrotactile systems are not the best available technology, and they are certainly not the future. But what they lack in richness and resolution of the sensations they elicit in their users, they make up for in practicality and cost. Requiring little more than a few vibration motors for operation, these systems can be deployed in just about any consumer hardware. So for everything from virtual reality to gaming, vibrotactile feedback is going to be with us for the foreseeable future.

If it is the best option available for most applications, then we may as well make the best of it, says a group of researchers at the Nara Institute of Science and Technology. And what better way to make the most of a vibrotactile system than by sticking it all over your body? The team came up with a flexible and modular vibrotactile feedback system called Tape-Tics that makes adding extensive haptic feedback to any application as easy as applying pieces of tape.

Tape-Tics is designed to overcome two major challenges that have long limited vibrotactile systems: inflexible form factors and complicated wiring. Traditional systems require separate actuators connected by bundles of wires, making it difficult to create prototypes that deliver coordinated sensations across multiple body regions. Tape-Tics replaces this complexity with a strip-based solution — a smart tape that integrates vibration motors and LEDs on a flexible printed circuit. Users can cut it to any length, attach it to curved surfaces or body parts, and instantly create a multi-point tactile interface.

Each segment, or “node,” of Tape-Tics contains three components: a small eccentric rotating mass vibration motor, an RGB LED, and an LED driver chip. These nodes are spaced along a thin polyimide-based flexible printed circuit just 0.11 millimeters thick. Power, ground, and data connections run continuously along the tape, allowing multiple nodes to be chained together. Because each node can be individually controlled, the system can produce complex spatial and temporal vibration patterns, with each motor’s intensity adjustable across 256 levels.

A separate Master Node houses the control electronics. This module uses an M5Stack Atom Matrix microcontroller, which communicates wirelessly with a computer via Bluetooth Low Energy. Users can connect additional sensors through GPIO pins, making the system easily extendable. Power is supplied by a 5V battery pack, keeping the system portable and safe for wearable applications.

Users can operate the system through a graphical interface that runs on a PC. Developed with a visual programming environment, the interface lets users adjust vibration intensity, duration, and LED color with simple sliders and buttons. A built-in timeline editor allows for intuitive sequencing of vibration patterns, much like editing a video clip. Settings can be saved, reloaded, and transmitted wirelessly to the device, making it easy for even beginners to create custom haptic experiences.

Each node costs under three dollars per vibration module, while the Master Node could be built for around twenty-two dollars. Despite its low cost, the device demonstrated excellent scalability and low power consumption, making it suitable for classroom use, research experiments, and artistic projects alike.

With its tape-like design, flexible electronics, and plug-and-play usability, Tape-Tics is a creative way to make haptic feedback more accessible. While it may not deliver the high-fidelity sensations of advanced haptic feedback systems, it excels where many others fall short: simplicity, versatility, and cost-effectiveness.