A flexible model for haptic-assisted pedestrian navigation mobile applications

Pedestrian navigation applications, specifically for mobile devices, have received much research and development attention over the past decade or so with many different types of solutions developed (Kenteris et al.; 2011). The most common interface is a map-based interface with written and/or verbal turn-by-turn directions (possibly including landmark information). Haptic technology, or haptics, is a tactile feedback technology that takes advantage of our sense of touch by applying forces, vibrations, and/or motions to the user (Nakao et al.; 2010). The potential of haptic technology has only recently started to receive the attention of the research community (Jacob et al.; 2010). In mobile devices haptic-feedback is delivered in the form of vibrations which can be programmatically controlled using the phone software API. In this paper we describe a simple, flexible, model for the integration of haptic feedback into pedestrian navigation applications on mobile devices. A constraint is that the mobile device must have an onboard GPS and compass. The vibration motor on the mobile device must also be capable of being controlled from software running on the device itself. Our model allows a “heads up” approach to pedestrian navigation with the mobile device where the user is not required to keep looking down to check the screen of the mobile device. For testing purposes text-based navigation assistance is provided in conjunction with the haptic-feedback on the device screen in our prototype implementation. Three distinct modes of vibration of the device are used to provide haptic feedback to the user