I am currently in Houston, Texas, at my first conference. This conference is about haptics, which all about the sense of touch, including how to quantify it, how to emulate it, and what applications are useful for haptic feedback.

I am here presenting my research from my summer internship. I published a paper for this conference about the work I did at SynTouch LLC. My work has to do with an application of SynTouch’s tactile sensor (The BioTac) for robotically assisted minimally invasive surgery. In contrast to open surgery, in minimally invasive surgery surgeons have no tactile feedback. My research explores the utility of a BioTac-inspired sensor for use in surgical environments.

My poster for the Haptics Symposium!

My poster for the Haptics Symposium!

 

In the conference so far I have listened to many interesting talks about haptic feedback devices and about texture characterization and emulation. I’ve also met a lot of very smart, passionate people from all around the world.

A really interesting talk at the Haptics Symposium about precision movements.

A really interesting talk at the Haptics Symposium about precision movements.

It’s been a great experience so far! Tomorrow is the day I present the poster I created for the conference and I am so excited to share my work!

Because I'm in Houston, I also got to visit my friend who goes to Rice! :)

Because I’m in Houston, I also got to visit my friend who goes to Rice Univeresity! 🙂