Sensory input, including those of touch, smell and sound, are known to be important to early science learning. Studies show that fewer than a quarter of British children regularly use their local patch of nature and many suffer from 'Nature Deficit Disorder', impacting physical and emotional health.
New haptic technologies based on variable friction allow users to feel textures on a touch screen. The SENSE project will develop such technologies to create a platform for sensory explorations of nature. The project will seek to augment observation outdoors through developing variable-friction haptic interfaces that allow you to feel texture when touching an image on the screen. The key aim is to enhance, rather than distract from or replace, experiences of and curiosity about nature.
