TactPrint: 3D Printing Lattice-based Tactile Displays with Optimized and Local Vibration.

Tactile sensation is widely used in human-object interactions. However, designing local vibrations within a device’s enclosure, while considering the propagation characteristics of the vibrations, is still challenging, which often results in the entire device vibrating uniformly. In this paper, we introduce TactPrint, a method that involves embedding a lattice structure around the area where we want to induce local vibrations and then optimizing this 3D structure to create a tactile display with the desired local vibration characteristics. With the TactPrint system, users can obtain structures with desired local vibration characteristics simply by inputting a 3D model, which can be fabricated with a 3D printer and combined with an actuator to create a tactile display easily. In this demonstration, we present several prototypes of tactile displays created using our proposed system and application scenarios using them.