Voodle

Tool Summary

Metadata
Release Yearⓘ The year a tool was first publicly released or discussed in an academic paper.	2017
Platformⓘ The OS or software framework needed to run the tool.	NodeJS
Availabilityⓘ If the tool can be obtained by the public.	Available
Licenseⓘ Tye type of license applied to the tool.	Unknown
Venueⓘ The venue(s) for publications.	ACM DIS
Intended Use Caseⓘ The primary purposes for which the tool was developed.	Prototyping, Communication

Hardware Information
Categoryⓘ The general types of haptic output devices controlled by the tool.	Force Feedback
Abstractionⓘ How broad the type of hardware support is for a tool. Bespoke: Hardware is custom built, including open hardware. Consumer: Support is limited to a specific commercial device or a family of devices. Class: Any device with the same affordances can be used, possibly with some configuration required.	Bespoke
Device Namesⓘ The hardware supported by the tool. This may be incomplete.	CuddleBit
Device Templateⓘ Whether support can be easily extended to new types of devices.	No
Body Positionⓘ Parts of the body where stimuli are felt, if the tool explicitly shows this.	N/A

Interaction Information
Driving Featureⓘ If haptic content is controlled over time, by other actions, or both.	Action
Effect Localizationⓘ How the desired location of stimuli is mapped to the device. Device-centric: No spatial information is taken into acccount. Actuators are directly controlled. Target-centric: Stimuli are placed on the body or are assigned to a virtual object to be triggered through interaction. The tool handles how the device will display the effect. Location-aware: The desired location of an effect is taken into account to some extent, but is ultimately presented in context of the output device.	Device-centric
Non-Haptic Mediaⓘ Support for non-haptic media in the workspace, even if just to aid in manual synchronization.	None
Iterative Playbackⓘ If haptic effects can be played back from the tool to aid in the design process.	Yes
Design Approachesⓘ Broadly, the methods available to create a desired effect. Direct: low-level parameters are directly modifiable. Procedure: parameters are controllable by an abstract process. Additive: reusable effects are ordered in time to create complex effects. Library: a library of pre-existing effects is available for use or re-use. Description: a natural language description of the experience is used to find an appropriate effect, often through searching a library.	Procedural
UI Metaphorsⓘ Common UI metaphors that define how a user interacts with a tool. Track: a timeline represents an interactive channel containing effects. Keyframe: key points of the effect are set and behavior between them is interpolated. Music Notation: an adaptation of a musical score or notation represents haptic effects. Dataflow: a dataflow programming model is used to control haptic output. Demonstration: physical actions or other data are mapped simply to effects or parameters. Generic Menu: typical GUI elements (e.g., sliders) are used to control effects with the absence of other metaphors.	Demonstration
Storageⓘ How data is stored for import/export or internally to the software.	None
Connectivityⓘ How the tool can be extended to support new data, devices, and software.	None

Additional Information

While Voodle is primarily meant to control 1 DoF robots called “CuddleBits”, it can also be used for haptic prototyping. The frequency and amplitude of a user’s voice is used to drive the output of the system. Each parameter is normalized and used to create a weighted average with the bias value set by the user. The user can then add random noise to the system and scale and smooth the resulting output. The mapping of voice input to motor output occurs in real time.

For more information, consult the DIS’17 paper and the GitHub repository.