Abstract:  Humans haptically perceive the material properties of objects, such as roughness and compliance, through signals from sensory receptors in skin, muscles, tendons, and joints.  Approaches to haptic rendering of material properties operate by stimulating, or attempting to stimulate, some or all of these receptor populations.  My talk will describe research on haptic perception of roughness and softness in real objects and surfaces and by rendering with a variety of devices.

Bio:  Roberta Klatzky is the Charles J. Queenan Jr. Professor of Psychology and the Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon. She received a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in cognitive psychology from Stanford University. Her research investigates perception, spatial thinking and action from the perspective of multiple modalities, sensory and symbolic, in real and virtual environments. Klatzky’s basic research has been applied to tele-manipulation, image-guided surgery, navigation aids for the blind, and neural rehabilitation. Klatzky is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Psychological Association, the Association for Psychological Science, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and she is a member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists (honorary). For her work on perception and action, she received an Alexander von Humboldt Research Award and the Kurt Koffka Medaille from Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Germany. Her professional service includes governance roles in several societies and membership on the National Academy of Science’s Committees on International Psychology, Human Factors, Reducing Counterfeiting Using Behavioral Sciences, and Techniques for Enhancing Human Performance.

Host: Ralph Hollis

Point of Contact: Stephanie Matvey (smatvey@andrew.cmu.edu)

THERE WILL BE A POST SEMINAR RECEPTION IN NSH 1507