FeelTact: Rich Tactile Interactions and Navigation, an Example With a Mobile Game in a City

With the ever-increasing number of applications for mobile phones, we are more and more likely to be confronted to a problem of a separation from our environment when we look at our screen. Besides, we may seek for more discretion in the use of these applications. This is why we propose an approach, which doesn’t use the screen as the main output device. We present rich tactile feedback via an easily manufactured and configurable mobile accessory, with a universal sound pilot. Thanks to its Braille cells, whose use is diverted and the management of its vibrating motors, the FeelTact handset enables the user to remain connected to his or her environment, to be discreet, to receive strictly personal information (e.g. health related data) and, in some cases, to develop content and existing applications (e.g. addition of tactile feedback on music or films). To begin with, we have implemented this approach on a mobile game based on an urban navigation system. The results are quite promising and show that we can access to a new tactile dimension, which, for its greatest part, remains to be discovered.