A new haptics design for visualizing data is constructed out of
commodity massage pads and custom controllers and interfaces to a
computer. It is an output device for information that can be transmitted
to a user who sits on the pad. Two unique properties of the design are:
(a) its large feedback area, and (b) its passive nature, where unlike
most current haptics devices, the user's hands are free to work on other
things. To test how useful such a device is for visualizing data we
added the VisPad interface to our protein structure-alignment program
(ProtAlign) and performed usability studies. The studies demonstrated
that information could be perceived significantly faster utilizing our
multi-modal presentation compared to vision-based graphical
visualization alone.
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