The Haptics Robotics and Virtual Interaction (HaRVI) Laboratory explores how humans interact with our world, robots, and technology through touch. The goal of our research is to create natural and intuitive interactions that realistically mimic the touch sensations experienced during interactions with the physical world. We design novel haptic hardware and rendering algorithms to improve the usability of technology, increasing people’s social connectedness, ability to complete specific tasks, and immersiveness in virtual reality. Our research has a strong focus on integrating human perception into all steps of the design process.

The HaRVI Lab is directed by Dr. Heather Culbertson, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science.