Edited by Anna Bentkowska-Kafel, Christos Giachritsis and David Pyrtherch
We owe a great deal to earlier researchers in haptic applications to cultural heritage, art studies and practice. We would like to list past and current projects which may illuminate and help in shaping future research in this area. Please post a brief description and link to a project which you think is worth inclusion. Comments will be posted at the Editors discretion and may be edited.
MUSEUM OF PURE FORM, Museo dell’Opera del Duomo, Pisa, Italy
TOUCHING the UNTOUCHABLE: Increasing Access to Archaeological Artefacts by Virtual Handling, University of Exeter, UK, 2009.
Introduction video by Dr Linda Hurcombe.
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‘Catch 22’, A research cluster funded by the Science and Heritage Programme, UK; University College London http://www.ucl.ac.uk/conservation-c-22/ (29 September 2009 workshop).
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http://www.cs.ucl.ac.uk/teaching/VE/Slides/2010-2011/08_Haptics.pdf
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V-HIP – A Virtual Haptic Interface for Printmaking
NB These V-HIP websites are no longer maintained:
http://www.sciria.org.uk/home/project_show/1
http://www.arts.ac.uk/research/17633.htm
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Haptec – A Haptic Training Simulator for Conservation, A. Geary and M. Sandy (2004)
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Art & Science of Touch 
Very interesting, I look forward to finding out more.
An early pilot study I conducted with randomly arriving museum visitors looked at the potential for the substitution of real object handling with touching virtual 3D replicas via a low resolution and commercially available haptic interface coupled with a stereoscopic (3D) visual display. It focussed on a small number of fundamental questions including;
• Did the capacity to physically touch exhibits add value to the museum experience?
• Did the visitors find the haptic display of virtual objects valuable, interesting and enjoyable?
Whilst the detail of the findings of the study is not relevant here, certain general results are worth mentioning:
• The sample visitors ranged in age from 5 to 88 and of these, 18 were male and 31 were female.
• Thirty seven of them used computers frequently, 7 occasionally and 5 never used computers.
• Of the 49 visitors questioned, 23 had previously touched museum objects but significantly, all 49 expressed the desire to touch.
• 5 had used a haptic interface prior to the testing but only 1 had ever used such a device to feel a museum object.
• All 49 said they had enjoyed the experience of touching the virtual objects.
• 45 said that they would prefer to visit a museum with a haptic display.
• 46 said they found the experience of touching virtual objects useful.
An area we were not able to examine with this particular study, due to the serendipitous nature of the visitor sampling method we used (asking anyone who walked through the gallery if they would try the system) was the potential impact for accessibility for people with vision impairments. However an informal trial with a blind member of staff from a city museum in the UK received a good report from him. He enjoyed the experience and was able to identify both the shape of the object and gain some insight into the surface carving and texture of the box he was feeling. Further, more formal tests are planned to explore the detail of the system’s effectiveness for people with vision impairments.
It seems clear from these results, that the introduction of haptic displays, in a robust and public facing form, could have positive outcomes for the general museum visitor. This, in turn has the potential to increase revenue for the institution by providing an added feature to the range of display technologies at their disposal and helping to attract increased visitor numbers. I wrote an analysis of issues and obstacles in Prytherch, D. & Jefsioutine, M. (2007). Touching Ghosts: Haptic technologies in museums. In Pye, E. (Ed.), The Power of Touch: Handling Objects in Museum and Heritage Contexts (pp. 223-40). Walnut Creek, California: Left Coast Press. This explores in greater detail the value of virtual haptic experiences in museums and considers whether affordable and available haptic interface technology is yet mature enough to enhance visitor experiences, allowing users to explore and touch virtual models of priceless and rare artefacts without subjecting the real objects to risk. This is not yet online but if anyone wants a copy, please email david.prytherch@bcu.ac.uk and I’ll send you one.
The links to V-HIP appear to be broken and sciria.org.uk appears to have expired. Is it archived elsewhere?
Hi Pete,
Information on past computer-based projects is notoriously difficult to locate. Shame the links to V-HIP and SCIRIA no longer work. I invited Angela Geary who worked on these projects to describe them for the 3DViSA Index of 3D Projects at http://3dvisa.cch.kcl.ac.uk/projectlist.html. I hope she responds positively. Please keep an eye on this URL.