Group Interaction through a Multi-modal Haptic Framework

This paper introduces a new haptic-supported software framework that facilitates the set up of different types of group interaction. The framework consists of multiple open source libraries supporting a range of external devices and services (e.g. Microsoft Kinect, cameras, Arduino controllers, sensors, AR tracking, remote haptic interaction,). To date three pilot studies have been conducted to test out the framework based on some existing benchmarks from the literature. Benchmarking studies have shown the flexibility and stability of the framework to devise interactive tasks in different social environments. It pointed out that this framework has the potential to be applied for socially assistive robotics field.