Touching the Sky: The Use of Arduino in Transferring Telescopic Light to Haptic Vibrations

TL;DR

This paper presents a proof-of-concept device using Arduino components to convert astronomical color data into haptic vibrations via Bluetooth, enhancing multi-sensory data exploration in space observation.

Contribution

It introduces a novel Arduino-based haptic device that translates telescope color data into vibrations, enabling multisensory perception of astronomical information.

Findings

Successful Bluetooth transfer of color data to haptic feedback

Enhanced perception of astronomical events through haptic vibrations

Potential application in calculating astrophysical quantities

Abstract

The chaotic nature of outer space and the limitation of visual displays command for much more than visual display of information and for the integration of other sensorial modalities during data exploration. Haptic real time devices may enrich the detection of astronomical events that otherwise would escape the eyes. Departing from the Harvard Astronomy Lab Orchestar (color Arduino) we present the work in progress of the Proof of Concept (PoC) of a sensitive yet simple device to Bluetooth transfer real time color into haptic motion built by Adafruit components. We assemble 2 Adafruit nRF52840 feather express with the RGB color sensor and haptic driver respectively to trigger vibrations according to the color variation from external light sources. In addition, a transparent hexagon cover will be mounted on the color sensor to maximise absorbed light from the telescope. The device aims to be a translator for people to see hear and feel the hidden information from the original data set. We also present its application in the calculation of complex astrophysics quantities such as the masses of solar coronal mass ejections.