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Sensing What You Do Not See: Alerting of Approaching Objects with a Haptic Vest
Albina Rurenko1, Devbrat Anuragi1, Ahmed Farooq1
1Faculty of Information Technology and Communication Sciences, City Centre Campus, Tampere University, 33100 Tampere, Finland.
Sensors (Basel, Switzerland)
|September 27, 2025
Summary
Wearable haptic feedback alerts improve safety in high-risk workplaces. Location-based vibration cues are more effective than pattern-based ones for detecting hazards, enhancing situational awareness.
Area of Science:
- Human-Computer Interaction
- Occupational Safety
- Wearable Technology
Background:
- Workplace accidents in high-risk environments are a significant safety concern, especially when visual and auditory senses are overloaded.
- Haptic feedback presents a viable alternative for alerting workers to dangers and improving situational awareness.
- Construction environments pose unique challenges due to dynamic and attentionally demanding contexts.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate effective haptic alerting strategies for dynamic, attentionally demanding work environments.
- To explore the use of wearable vibration cues for hazard detection outside the field of view.
- To compare the efficacy of pattern-based versus location-based haptic alerts.
Main Methods:
- Two empirical experiments were conducted using wearable vibration cues.
- Experiment 1: Evaluated pattern-based vibrations to simulate motion and assessed signal parameters' impact on perceived urgency.
- Experiment 2: Compared pattern-based and location-based haptic alerts in a complex virtual environment simulating cognitive workload.
Main Results:
- A negative correlation was found between pulse duration and perceived urgency in pattern-based vibrations.
- Location-based haptic alerts demonstrated higher efficiency in hazard detection compared to pattern-based alerts.
- The study identified key design factors for user-centered haptic safety systems.
Conclusions:
- Haptic feedback, particularly location-based alerts, can significantly enhance safety and situational awareness in high-risk occupations.
- Findings provide a foundation for developing and deploying effective wearable alerting technologies in real-world settings.
- This research offers a generalizable approach to wearable safety systems for critical occupations like construction.
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