Zixel: A 2.5-D Graphical Tactile Display System

What if computer graphics of the present day could be physically touched and felt, in addition to being seen?

Virtually rendered graphics displayed on a regular 2-D screen provide a rich visual feedback about the object. Present day touchscreen based devices employ direct manipulation of the screen elements, which are essentially a 2-D extension of the real 3D form. However, the feedback is limited by what the screen can render.

Somewhat like interactive RGBZ(Red, Green, Blue, Z-axis) Pin-Art which is controlled by the computer and can render coloured pixels.

This project aims at extending the present 2-D displays into a 2.5 D form where graphics as well as haptic sensation could be directly communicated to the end-user without need of a wearable accessory.

We also define a basic actuated addition to present 2-D pixel form, a physical Z-axis, which caters to the physical manifestation of the virtual object for a rich tactile and graphical feedback. We call the system- Zixel.

[stextbox id=”grey”] Tools used: Arduino Mega, Micro linear actuators, RGB LEDs, Blender-Arduino [/stextbox]

[stextbox id=”download”]Update: TEI 2012 | SIGGRAPH ASIA 2011 paper. [/stextbox]