Haptic Interfaces for Accessibility, Health, and Enhanced Quality of Life

Troy McDaniel is an Assistant Professor in the Polytechnic School at Arizona State University. He is the Director of the HAPT-X Laboratory and Co-Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing at ASU. His research interests span the areas of haptic interfaces, wearable robotics, smart cities, human-computer interaction, and machine learning, especially for haptics. He is particularly interested in tactile vision sensory substitution, haptic human augmentation, and multimodal integration. His current research explores how information traditionally presented visually and/or aurally may be presented haptically through novel touch-based interfaces. His current application areas are assistive technologies for individuals with sensory impairments and rehabilitative technologies for individuals with physical impairments. Within these applications, he is exploring new haptic interaction paradigms and novel mappings between modalities to convey information in alternative ways. He is also actively exploring challenges of accessibility and health & well being within Smart Cities and Smart Living application spaces using a citizen-centered approach. He is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM).Sethuraman Panch Panchanathan leads the knowledge enterprise at Arizona State University, which advances research, innovation, strategic partnerships, entrepreneurship, global and economic development at ASU. He is the Director of the Center for Cognitive Ubiquitous Computing at ASU. Panchanathan's research interests are in the areas of human-centered multimedia computing, haptic user interfaces, person-centered tools and ubiquitous computing technologies for enhancing the quality of life for individuals with disabilities, machine learning for multimedia applications, medical image processing, and media processor designs. Panchanathan has published more than 500 papers in refereed journals and conferences and has mentored nearly 150 graduate students, post-docs, research engineers and research scientists who occupy leading positions in academia and industry. He was the editor-in-chief of the IEEE Multimedia Magazine, and is also an editor/associate editor of several international journals and transactions. Panchanathan was appointed by President Barack Obama to the U.S. National Science Board for a six-year term and was appointed by the U.S. Secretary of Commerce to the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Panchanathan is a fellow and Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Membership of the National Academy of Inventors. In 2018, Panchanathan was appointed Arizona Governor Doug Ducey's Senior Advisor for Science & Technology. Panchanathan is a Fellow of the NAI, American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the Canadian Academy of Engineering (CAE), the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Optical Engineering (SPIE).