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Hi.
I'm Allison Okamura.
I'm a professor in the Department of Mechanical
Engineering at Stanford University, and I also have a
courtesy appointment in computer science.
I'd like to tell you about my new online course called
Haptics 101, which is Introduction to the field of
haptic technology.
The word haptics anything having to do with
the sense of touch.
Like the word optic has to do a vision, haptic has to do
with touch.
Haptic technology is used to generate touch sensations in a
wide variety of applications.
On one end of the spectrum is simple vibration feedback,
like when your smartphone shakes to let you know that
you have an incoming call without disturbing other
people in the room.
On the other end is three-dimensional force
feedback that lets a surgeon practice doing minimally
invasive surgery in a realistic virtual environment
before operating on a real patient.
Haptic feedback can also provide useful information to
a person who is teleoperating a remote robot.
For example, a bomb disposal expert can safely control a
remote robot to defuse a bomb, and haptics can provide this
operator with valuable feedback about the materials
being manipulated.
Haptics is related to the fields of mechanical
engineering, electrical engineering, bioengineering,
computer science, robotics, and a wide range of important
applications, like medicine space and entertainment.
In this class, you will learn the basics of haptic
technology, including how to build a haptic device like
this, how to program haptic virtual environments, and even
a little bit about human haptic capabilities.
You don't need to know anything about these topics
already in order to take this class.
All you need is high school physics, non-calculus based,
pre-calculus, in particular trigonometry, and basic
computer literacy.
We'll teach you everything else you need to know.
Because haptics is all about the sense of touch, to learn
it, you need to have physical hardware to work with.
So as a student enrolled in this class, we will send you
one of these new devices, which we call Hapkit.
This is a small desktop haptic device that you can assemble
from the given parts using household tools.
You'll also need your own Mac or Windows based
PC with a USB port.
Please make sure to look at the requirements for the
course to make sure you have what you need.
Now this idea, to distribute and have students build
hardware in an online class, is pretty new, and we're
really excited to have you as a part of this experiment.
But because this is the first time we're doing this, there
are some interesting things we have to consider.
One nice thing is that you'll get a Hapkit and
shipping for free.
However, we can only give free devices to really engaged,
committed students, and we can only ensure a good experience
for the first 100 students in this first offering.
So this means that there's going to be an application
process for this class.
So again, please look at the requirements list so you can
see a link to the online application.
In addition to teaching you about haptic technology
through your Hapkit, this class also has a few important
secondary goals.
First, I want you to experience the joy of
connecting concepts you learned about in physics to
equations that can be programmed into a haptic
device, and finally to something you can feel with
your own hands.
This is one of the things I love about haptics, that aha
moment where you intuitively understand a physical or
mathematical concept because you just felt it.
Second, I want you to get creative.
The first novel, compelling haptic virtual environments
that you're going to come up with will be something that
communicate either realistic or maybe even totally
unrealistic haptic sensations.
Second, you can later on modify or do something new
with your Hapkit hardware.
After the class is done, we would love to see what new
haptic device designs you come up with.
The Hapkit is a gateway device, and this is a gateway
haptics course.
When you finish this five-week hands-on online class, you'll
be prepared to do all kinds of new things in engineering,
computer science, robotics, and haptics.
We hope it will inspire you.