INTEGRATING LOW-COST, OPEN-SOURCE, HAPTICS INTO THE COMPUTING CURRICULUM

Abstract

While haptic devices have been available to theresearch community for some time, it is only recently thatlower-cost models have enabled broader adoption in theeducation community. Even so, typical commercial devicesare often as expensive as the computers driving them, andare sometimes limited by software provided by themanufacturer. This paper describes an alternate hapticdevice designed for the computer game community,available at low cost, and for which open-source drivers andapplication frameworks are available. Specifically, itdescribes the strengths and limitations of the Novint Falconhaptic game controller, available open-source drivers, andhigh-level development environments. The paper thendescribes how the resulting infrastructure is used to enhancethe computer literacy course through touch-enabled gamesand medical models, as well as describing future potentialfor enhancing the computer graphics and operating systemscurricula.Index Terms ⎯ Haptics, graphics, API, pedagogy.