While technology helps people to compensate for a broad set of mobility impairments, visual perception and/or cognitive deficiencies still significantly affect their ability to move safely and easily. DORNELL proposes an innovative multisensory, multimodal, smart haptic handle that can be easily plugged onto a wide range of mobility aids. Specifically fabricated to fit the needs of a person, it provides a wide set of tactile sensations in a portable and plug-and-play format – bringing haptics in assistive technologies all at once. DORNELL adaptively provide the user with personalized tactile feedback, such as skin stretch, pressure, thermal, and vibrations, to convey a wide range of environmental information, such as the distance from obstacles or the direction to take. The handle addresses an important need for assistive technologies: providing rich navigation information in an unobtrusive, inexpensive, natural, personalized, and easy-to-use way. Indeed, the handle will be wireless and plug-and-play compatible with many mobility aids, such as power wheelchairs, white canes, and walkers, enabling our project to address at the same time a wide range of disabilities. DORNELL addresses important scientific and technological challenges, including the study of multisensory perception, the use of new materials for multimodal haptic feedback, and the development of a haptic rendering API to adapt the feedback to different assistive scenarios and user’s wishes. It is co-designed with users and therapists, driving our development by their expectations and needs.
