Wearable tech that helps you navigate by touch | Keith Kirkland

翻译人员: Thomas Tam 校对人员: Tianji (Homer) Li

Do you remember your first kiss?

你犹记当年的初吻吗？

Or that time you burned the roof of your mouth

或那次刚出炉的热披萨， 烫伤了你嘴巴的事吗?

on a hot slice of pizza?

What about playing tag or duck, duck, goose as a child?

小时候玩 “贴膏药“或”鸭、鸭或鹅” 感觉怎么样？

These are all instances where we're using touch to understand something.

这些都是用触摸来 理解某些东西的例子。

And it's the basis of haptic design.

是建立触觉设计的基础。

"Haptic" means of or relating to the sense of touch.

“触感” 是与触觉有关。

And we've all been using that our entire lives.

每天我们都在使用。

I was working on my computer when my friend,

当我的朋友注意到 我在电脑前工作时，

seeing me hunched over typing, walked over behind me.

驼着背打字，就走到我身后。

She put her left thumb into the left side of my lower back,

她把左手大拇指放在我下背部的左边，

while reaching her right index finger around to the front of my right shoulder.

又把她的右手食指伸到我右肩的前面。

Instinctively, I sat up straight.

我就本能地坐直了。

In one quick and gentle gesture,

一个快速而温和的手势，

she had communicated how to improve my posture.

她就促使我改善自己的姿势。

The paper I was working on at that very moment

当时我正在写的一篇论文

centered around developing new ways to teach movement using technology.

是论述利用新技术来导引运动。

I wanted to create a suit that could teach a person kung fu.

我想制造能教人功夫的套装。

（笑声）

(Laughter)

But I had no idea how to communicate movement

但我的疑问在于怎样指导运动，

without an instructor being in the room.

当没有老师在场的时候。

And in that moment, it became crystal clear: touch.

那一刻，我突然找到了答案： 触摸。

If I had vibrating motors where she had placed each of her fingers,

如果将振动马达放在 她每只手指的位置上，

paired with motion-capture data of my current and optimal posture,

配对当前捕捉到的动作与 最佳姿势动作的数据差别，

I could simulate the entire experience

我就可以模拟整个

without an instructor needing to be in the room.

没有教练在旁的环境。

But there was still one important part of the puzzle that was missing.

但还有一个重要的疑难。

If I want you to raise your wrist two inches off of your lap,

如果使用振动器要把你的手腕 从膝盖抬高两英寸时，

using vibration,

how do I tell you to do that?

我又怎能驱使你这么做？

Do I put a motor at the top of your wrist, so you know to lift up?

就放一个马达在你的手腕上， 能让你知道要抬起手吗？

Or do I put one at the bottom of your wrist,

或放在你手腕底部， 感觉像是被人推起来？

so it feels like you're being pushed up?

There were no readily available answers

这个没有现成技术可供参考，

because there was no commonly agreed-upon haptic language

因为没有公认的触觉语言

与…交流信息。

to communicate information with.

So my cofounders and I set out to create that language.

所以我和共同创始人 开始创造这种新语言。

And the first device we built was not a kung fu suit.

我们制造的第一件设备 并不是功夫套装。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But in a way, it was even more impressive

但在某种程度上， 它更令人印象深刻，

because of its simplicity and usefulness.

因为它简单而实用。

We started with the use case of navigation,

首先从导航事例开始，

which is a simplified form of movement.

是一种简化的运动形式。

We then created Wayband,

然后我们创造了 “引路手带” ，

一种腕部穿戴设备， 可引领用户到达目的地，

a wrist-wearable device that could orient a user toward a destination,

using vibrating cues.

用振动提示作导航。

We would ask people to spin around

我们会让人们转到

他们认为正确的方向停下来。

and to stop in a way that they felt was the right way to go.

我们非正式给数百人试验过了，

Informally, we tried this with hundreds of people,

and most could figure it out within about 15 seconds.

大多数人可以在 15 秒内 找到正确方向。

It was that intuitive.

就是依据直觉。

Initially, we were just trying to get people out of their phones

起初，我们只想让人们 从沉醉于手机中回到现实世界。

and back into the real world.

But the more we experimented,

但我们做越多的试验，

the more we realized that those who stood to benefit most from our work

发觉最受益的人，

were people who had little or no sight.

是盲人或视力受障碍人士。

When we first approached a blind organization, they told us,

当首次接触盲人组织时， 他们告诉我们，

"Don't build a blind device.

“不要设计盲人专用的设备，

Build a device that everyone can use

设计一个所有人都可用的设备

but that's optimized for the blind experience."

但可优化盲人的生活。”

We created our company WearWorks with three guiding principles:

我们用三个指导原则 创建了一家公司 “佩戴工艺” ：

make cool stuff,

是做些很酷的东西，

create the greatest impact we can in our lifetimes

用尽全力，创造最大的影响力，

and reimagine an entire world designed for touch.

重新构想以触摸为旨的世界。

And on November 5, 2017,

2017年11月5日，

Wayband helped a person who was blind

佩戴工艺协助了一位盲人

run the first 15 miles of the New York City Marathon

在没有领跑员的帮助下， 跑完纽约市马拉松的前15英里。

without any sighted assistance.

（掌声）

(Applause)

It didn't get him through the entire race due to the heavy rain,

不巧的是由于大雨， 他未能跑毕全程，

but that didn't matter.

但这点并不重要。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

We had proved the point:

我们已经证明了

that it was possible to navigate a complex route using only touch.

在复杂的路线上， 靠着触感也可以被导航。

So, why touch?

那么，为何是触感呢？

The skin has an innate sensitivity

因为皮肤天生敏感，

akin to the eyes' ability to recognize millions of colors

类似于眼睛有识别 数百万种颜色的能力，

or the ears' ability to recognize complex pitch and tone.

或者耳朵识别复杂音调 和音色的能力。

Yet, as a communications channel,

然而，作为沟通渠道，

它被归入摩尔斯电码， 比如手机通知之类。

it's been largely relegated to Morse code-like cell phone notifications.

If you were to suddenly receive a kiss or a punch,

如果你突然被吻或被打一拳，

your reaction would be instinctive and immediate.

你的反应会是本能而直接的。

同时，你的大脑会从后追赶。

Meanwhile, your brain would be playing catch-up on the back end

to understand the details of what just occurred.

想了解刚发生事情的细节。

And compared to instincts, conscious thought is pretty slow.

与直觉相比，有意识的思考 是相当缓慢的。

But it's a lightning bolt

像一瞬间的闪电，

compared to the snail's pace of language acquisition.

与语言沟通的速度相比。

I spent a considerable amount of time

我花了很多的时间

learning Spanish, Japanese, German and currently Swedish,

学习西班牙语、日语、 德语和目前的瑞典语，

with varying degrees of failure.

有不同程度的失败。

(Laughter)

（笑声）

But within those failures were kernels of how different languages are organized.

我失败的核心在于这些语言有 不同的组织方式。

That gave our team insight

使我们的团队得到启示，

into how to use the linguistic order of well-established languages

如何运用语序

as inspiration for an entirely new haptic language,

引领我们发展一种 全新触觉语言，

one based purely on touch.

纯粹基于触摸。

It also showed us when using language mechanics wasn't the best way

还有利用语言运用的方式 不是信息传递的最好方法。

to deliver information.

In the same way a smile is a smile across every culture,

微笑是不分文化的。

what if there was some underlying mechanism of touch

如果有某种潜在的接触机制

that transcended linguistic and cultural boundaries?

能超越了语言和文化的界限？

A universal language, of sorts.

某种通用语言。

You see, I could give you buzz-buzz-buzz, buzz-buzz,

可以给你二短一长，二短的振动，

and you would eventually learn

由此你最终会学到

that that particular vibration means "stop."

那种特殊振动意味着 “停止”。

But as haptic designers, we challenged ourselves.

身为触觉设计师，我们自我挑战

如何来设计 “停止” 的讯号？

What would it be like to design "stop?"

Well, based on context,

举个例子，

most of us have the experience of being in a vehicle

大多数人在车上都经历过，

and having that vehicle stop suddenly, along with our body's reaction to it.

那辆车突然停下来， 我们的身体会接着作出反应。。

So if I wanted you to stop,

若果我要你停下来，

I could send you a vibration pattern, sure.

可以给你发一张振动图。

Or, I could design a haptic experience

或者可以设计一种触觉体验，

that just made stopping feel like it was the right thing to do.

让人知道做出正确的停止动作。

And that takes more than an arbitrary assignment of haptic cues to meanings.

不能只发出任意的触觉讯号，

It takes a deep empathy.

讯号要引发强烈的共鸣。

It also takes the ability to distill human experience into meaningful insights

那么还需要从人类的经验中 提炼出有意义的洞察力

and then into haptic gestures and products.

产生出以触觉为主的手势和产品。

触觉的设计将扩展我们人类

Haptic design is going to expand the human ability

to sense and respond to our environments,

感知和应对环境的能力，

both physical and virtual.

在实际和虚拟环境中。

There's a new frontier: touch.

我们在构建一个新的领域：触觉。

And it has the power to change how we all see the world around us.

驱动我们对周围环境有新的看法。

Thank you.

谢谢您。

(Applause)

（掌声）