The Human Fusions Institute left an impression at the inaugural IEEE Telepresence conference in Pasadena, Calif. Multiple team members gave presentations that will result in papers published in IEEE Xplore sometime in 2025.
Ph.D. student Rachel Jakes presented research she and fellow Ph.D. student Luis Mesias Flores have done on Adjustable Contact Electrode rings, wearable haptic interfaces that use electrical nerve stimulation. Jakes demonstrated to attendees how the rings can adapt to different nerve anatomy and provide fingertip sensation without impeding the hand. She also discussed the rings’ compatibility with mobile telepresence and mixed reality applications, emphasizing their compatibility with virtual reality headset-based optical hand tracking.
Software engineer S. M. Asjad’s presentation, “NeuroReality: A Data Distribution Service-Based Inter-Process Communication Middleware,” demonstrated a faster, more reliable, robust, and scalable communication middleware than others currently used in the field. As he researched, he found that his middleware improved performance while handling extensive data types, modalities, and definitions. HFI’s NeuroReality platform allows reliable long-distance data communication and is robust to network changes, the key requirement for a seamless telepresence experience.
“There was excitement and interest within the community as people wanted to learn more about how our platform works and how it addressed the limitations of other platforms,” said Asjad. “There was also interest in knowing about an academic version of NeuroReality being released to the public.”
In addition to presenting their research, HFI conference attendees appreciated the opportunity to meet researchers in similar fields worldwide. “We usually just ask basic qualitative or specific quantitative questions, but one of the presenters suggested asking the participant to identify not only how strong a sensation was but what it felt like in a quantitative manner,” said Flores. “The conference provided an excellent overview of multiple fields like robotics, controls, haptics, and human factors and how they all relate to telepresence.”
“We learned that many people are trying to answer the same research questions as us, and it was a good opportunity to see how their methodologies differ from ours,” said Asjad.
