Tuŝi
Bachelor Thesis – marked with a 10.

This is Tuŝi. A social interactive object that can communicate its emotions purely through tactile actuators. The tactile emotions of Tuŝi are activated by various forms of touch of the user sensed by different kind of tactile sensors on and in the body of Tusi.

The Thesis (Emotie voelbaar maken) and more information (like building instructions) can be found here.


People called Tuŝi & ‘Emotie voelbaar maken’:
“Very creative research method” – “striking due to its social relevance” – “very comprehensive and high-quality thesis” – “Example for future students” – “Overstijgt de HBO norm” – “Must read for everyone in the human-computer (robot) interaction field!”

Prijzen:
– Avans scriptie prijs (2014)

Exposities:
– ViviD Slotconference (2014)

Selectie uit Publicaties:
AD.nl “Bredase student ontwikkelt knuffelrobot en krijgt een 10” (2014)
Bright.nl “Waarom zou een robot moeten voelen?” (2014)
Omroep Brabant “Bredase student Mark de Reijer maakt speeltje van de toekomst; de knuffelrobot Tûsi” (2014)
Omroep Brabant Nieuws TV uitzending (2014) en radio uitzending.
Punt “Tuŝi, een robot met gevoel” (2014)
For emotional communication current social technology focuses on the face of this technology with auditory and visual feedback. The largest and most underrated sense organ is being forgotten: the tactile sense.
The goal of this project is to investigate whether it is possible to combine different tactile actuators to create emotional expressions that people can experience, but mostly recognize, in a natural way.
Tuŝi has been build from many 3d printed parts. This was my first printer. These days my setup has envolved to be more profesional.
Everything was self-designed.
Prototyping the inner mechanics.
Prototyping the inner mechanics. Later on I changed this.
It was a challenge to put all the electronics and mechanics in the tight confinement of the body.