Wearable tech that helps you navigate by touch | Keith Kirkland

譯者: Helen Chang 審譯者: Zoe Chang

Do you remember your first kiss?

還記得你的初吻嗎？

Or that time you burned the roof of your mouth

或是某次被熱騰騰的披薩燙傷了嘴呢？

on a hot slice of pizza?

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

還有童年玩的「鴨鴨鵝遊戲」 之類的碰了就跑的遊戲呢？

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

這些都是我們透過觸覺 來意識到某事的實例。

And it's the basis of haptic design.

它是觸覺設計的基礎。

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

觸覺（Haptic）也就是 與碰觸相關的感覺。

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

我們一生都不停地在碰觸。

I was working on my computer when my friend,

有次我在打電腦時，

朋友看到我駝著背打字，

seeing me hunched over typing, walked over behind me.

就走到我的身後。

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

她把左手拇指放在我的左下背部，

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

右手食指勾住我的右肩前方。

Instinctively, I sat up straight.

本能地，我坐直了。

In one quick and gentle gesture,

她用快而溫和的手勢

she had communicated how to improve my posture.

溝通如何改善我的姿勢。

The paper I was working on at that very moment

那一刻我正在寫的論文主題正是

centered around developing new ways to teach movement using technology.

如何借助科技來教授動作。

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

我也想過要做一件衣服， 穿上它你就會打功夫。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But I had no idea how to communicate movement

但我不知道沒教練在場的狀況下

without an instructor being in the room.

怎麼去溝通動作。

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

那一刻我清楚明白：用觸感。

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

假使在我身上那些她手指 所碰之處裝上振動馬達，

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

搭配動作捕捉數據，隨時 把我的姿勢與最佳姿勢相比，

I could simulate the entire experience

我就可以模擬整個體驗，

without an instructor needing to be in the room.

無需教練親身在場。

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

至此仍有一個重要的關鍵待解。

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

我該怎麼樣用振動提示你

using vibration,

把手腕從大腿向上抬兩英寸呢？

how do I tell you to do that?

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

應該把馬達裝在你的手腕上 讓你知道要抬起來，

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

還是裝在手腕下面， 感覺像是被往上推那樣呢？

so it feels like you're being pushed up?

There were no readily available answers

沒有現成的答案，

because there was no commonly agreed-upon haptic language

因為沒有傳達訊息的 共通、既定觸覺語言。

to communicate information with.

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

因此我和我的合夥人 著手創造那語言。

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

我們做出來的第一個東西不是功夫裝。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

But in a way, it was even more impressive

但在某種程度上，它更亮眼，

because of its simplicity and usefulness.

因為它簡單又實用。

We started with the use case of navigation,

我們從導航的用例開始，

which is a simplified form of movement.

它是種簡化的運動形式。

We then created Wayband,

然後我們創建了 Wayband，

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

是一種戴在手腕的裝置， 可以將用戶引導到目的地，

using vibrating cues.

使用振動提示的方式。

We would ask people to spin around

我們叫人們原地旋轉，

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

當他們感受到方向對了就停下來。

Informally, we tried this with hundreds of people,

我們在數百人身上非正式地實驗過，

and most could figure it out within about 15 seconds.

多數人約 15 秒內可以搞清楚。

It was that intuitive.

就是這麼直覺。

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

最初，我們只想要人們擺脫手機，

and back into the real world.

回到現實的世界。

But the more we experimented,

但是我們越試驗

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

就越意識到受益最多的

were people who had little or no sight.

是那些全盲或近盲的人。

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

當我們首次接觸盲人組織時， 他們告訴我們：

"Don't build a blind device.

「不要設計盲人專用的設備。

Build a device that everyone can use

設計一個人人都可以使用的設備，

but that's optimized for the blind experience."

但是盲胞更能因之受益的設備。」

We created our company WearWorks with three guiding principles:

我們創建了 WearWorks 公司， 它有三個指導原則：

make cool stuff,

製作很酷的產品，

create the greatest impact we can in our lifetimes

在我們有生之年發揮最大的影響力，

and reimagine an entire world designed for touch.

並且重新建構專為觸覺 而設計的世界。

And on November 5, 2017,

2017 年 11 月 5 日，

Wayband helped a person who was blind

Wayband 幫一個盲人

run the first 15 miles of the New York City Marathon

跑了紐約市馬拉松賽的 前 15 英里，

without any sighted assistance.

沒有明眼人陪跑。

(Applause)

（掌聲）

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

裝置受到大雨影響，他沒有跑完全程，

but that didn't matter.

但那並不重要。

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

我們已證明這一點：

We had proved the point:

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

只靠觸感就可以導航複雜的路線。

So, why touch?

那麼，為什麼要用觸感呢？

The skin has an innate sensitivity

皮膚天生敏感性高，

akin to the eyes' ability to recognize millions of colors

有著類似眼睛識別 數百萬種顏色的能力，

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

或耳朵辨別複雜音高和音調的能力。

Yet, as a communications channel,

然而，作為溝通的管道，

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

皮膚基本上只被用來接收 摩斯代碼般的手機震動通知。

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

如果你突然被吻或被擊了一拳，

your reaction would be instinctive and immediate.

你必然本能和直接地反應。

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

與此同時，你的大腦還在想辦法趕上，

to understand the details of what just occurred.

試圖了解剛剛發生的事情的細節。

And compared to instincts, conscious thought is pretty slow.

有意識的思想比本能慢很多，

But it's a lightning bolt

但若和學習語言的蝸速來比， 則快得有如閃電。

compared to the snail's pace of language acquisition.

我花了相當多的時間學習

I spent a considerable amount of time

learning Spanish, Japanese, German and currently Swedish,

西班牙語、日語、德語， 目前正在學瑞典語，

全都不同程度地失敗了。

with varying degrees of failure.

(Laughter)

（笑聲）

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

但在失敗中學到了 不同語言的組織方式，

That gave our team insight

使得我們團隊深入了解

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

如何把既定的語言順序

開發全新觸覺語言的靈感，

as inspiration for an entirely new haptic language,

one based purely on touch.

一個完全奠基於觸覺的語言。

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

它還向我們展示了

語言機制不是提供訊息的最佳方式。

to deliver information.

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

就像微笑是跨文化的，同樣的，

what if there was some underlying mechanism of touch

是否也有一種觸覺機制是 超越語言和文化界限的呢？

that transcended linguistic and cultural boundaries?

A universal language, of sorts.

類似一種全球通用的語言。

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

你看，如果我用這樣的震動模式， 二短一長 - 二短，

and you would eventually learn

你最後終究會學到

that that particular vibration means "stop."

那個振動意味著「停止」。

But as haptic designers, we challenged ourselves.

但身為觸覺設計師，我們得自我挑戰。

What would it be like to design "stop?"

設計「停止」是什麼樣子呢？

Well, based on context,

應該要根據實際情況吧，

most of us have the experience of being in a vehicle

我們多數人有過這樣的經驗，

坐在車裡，突然一個緊急煞車， 我們身體當下的自然反應。

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

So if I wanted you to stop,

因此，如果我想讓你停下來，

I could send you a vibration pattern, sure.

我可以發個停止的振動模式給你。

Or, I could design a haptic experience

或者，我可以設計一個觸覺體驗，

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

就讓你覺得停下來才是對的。

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

而這個設計不是任意地決定 觸覺方式及其代表的意義，

It takes a deep empathy.

其中更需要的是深切的同理心。

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

還要能把人類的經驗 提煉成有意義的直覺，

and then into haptic gestures and products.

再轉化為觸覺的手勢和產品。

Haptic design is going to expand the human ability

觸覺設計將擴展人類

to sense and respond to our environments,

感知和回應環境的能力，

both physical and virtual.

實體和虛擬兩者皆然。

There's a new frontier: touch.

觸覺是一個全新尚待開發的領域。

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

它能改變我們看待周圍世界的方式。

Thank you.

謝謝。

(Applause)

（掌聲）