Rapid prototyping of low cost 1 DOF haptic interfaces

The paper describes the issues related to the implementation and the control of a low cost 1DOF haptic device. Arduino, which has been widely adopted in the interaction design schools as a means to produce low cost, low-fi and rapid prototypes of interactive systems, has been used here as an alternative to more performing electronic control boards to control a DC motor and simulate a haptic knob. The idea is to explore the possibility of creating simple prototypes of haptic devices before building the final product. At this stage we have explored the implementation of a simple haptic knob, trying to identify the main issues. In particular, some control strategies have been used for the motor, and pros and cons are described in the paper.