“Materials Science and Haptics”

The workshop convened researchers who are active in the field of tactile perception of materials. Materials properties such as viscoelastic moduli, surface energy, thermal effusivity, or uptake of humidity are known to influence the haptic perception of materials. Furthermore, shape and surface structure influence perception of materials by touch.

The topics for the workshop included:

• Fundamental understanding of tactile perception from experiments using manufactured or 3D-printed samples with controlled roughness and shape.
• Tactile perception of natural and technological materials with everyday tactile interaction, including wood, metals, plastics, and textiles.
• Perceived changes of materials properties upon vibro-tactile stimulation.
• Modeling skin mechanics and perception processes.
• Cross-modal perception of materials, including representation of the touched samples in a virtual reality.

The workshop was a forum for presentation of the recent developments in research on tactile perception of materials and for discussion of future directions and open questions. Invited talks were given by:

• Knut Drewing (Giessen)
• Astrid Kappers (Eindhoven)
• Mark Rutland (Stockholm)
• Jean-Louis Thonnard (Louvain)
• Yasemin Vardar and David Gueorguiev (Stuttgart)
• Michael Wiertlewski (Marseille)

The workshop held at the INM ( www.leibniz-inm.de/en/ ) was organized by Roland Bennewitz, René Hensel, and Eduard Arzt.