HapTag: A Compact Actuator for Rendering Push-Button Tactility on Soft Surfaces

As touch interactions become ubiquitous in the field of human computer interactions, it is critical to enrich haptic feedback to improve efficiency, accuracy, and immersive experiences. This paper presents HapTag, a thin and flexible actuator to support the integration of push button tactile renderings to daily soft surfaces. Specifically, HapTag works under the principle of hydraulically amplified electroactive actuator (HASEL) while being optimized by embedding a pressure sensing layer, and being activated with a dedicated voltage appliance in response to users’ input actions, resulting in fast response time, controllable and expressive push-button tactile rendering capabilities. HapTag is in a compact formfactor and can be attached, integrated, or embedded on various soft surfaces like cloth, leather, and rubber. Three common push button tactile patterns were adopted and implemented with HapTag. We validated the feasibility and expressiveness of HapTag by demonstrating a series of innovative applications under different circumstances.