This research focuses on the design of tactile interfaces, using sensor technology.
What kinds of new and different experiences can interaction designers create based on a situated approach to the user experience? This question is central to the Embodied Interaction research. In the first phase of the research, prototypes were developed for tactile interfaces. These interfaces provide information by means of vibrations. The receivers can receive various messages by means of these vibrations.
This was followed by various user experience tests and testing an interactive installation at Sencity Festival 2019. Early 2024, a co-design 
study was held at Kunsthal Rotterdam. Selected findings were presented at Sencity Festival 2024 and at USH2025.
The Tactile Feedback Belt has been developed as an interface within this research. The Enactive Torch was also used. The Tactile Feedback Belt gives indication, for example, of magnetic north by vibration, while the Enactive Torch measures the distance to objects, signalling these through vibrations in a flashlight-like box. These tools are combined with 3D tracking sensors. By combining the interactive belt with a 3D positioning system, virtual spatial shapes can be communicated to the wearer by means of tactile stimulation.
The second phase of the research focuses mainly on the user’s experience of the interfaces. The Tactile Feedback Belt and the Enactive Torch have been tested by various users, such as the Communication & Multimedia Design students at Avans University of Applied Sciences, dancers from dance group De Stilte and people with sensory disabilities. Blind or visually impaired people can ‘see’ their surroundings with the interactive belt by means of vibrations.
Based on the previous user tests, an interactive installation was developed that was tested during the Sencity festival, a festival for blind and partially sighted people, in March 2019 and was very well received.
Based on insights from experiments conducted at the Sencity Festival, in Utrecht, 2019, and previous experiences with the prototype, further research is being conducted into the experience of augmented sense-making among specific (expert) users, such as blind and partially sighted people. The potential of such experiences within the domain of care and welfare is central to this research.
Research question for follow-up research:
What is the potential of augmented sense-making for the domain of care and welfare?
A co-design session was hosted at Kunsthal Rotterdam in january 2024, where deaf, hard-of-hearing and hearing participants collaboratively explored the potential of tactile augmentation in shared museum experiences. Working in non-verbal pairs, participants visited the exhibition Fancy Some Friction, Honey?, and engaged in material-based design exercises to propose tactile interventions. The session offeredvaluable insight into inclusive interaction design practices and contributed to a theoretical and methodological framework for subsequent studies. A journal article based on this study, titled Co-designing shared experiences for and with deaf and hearing museum visitors, was submitted to CoDesign in March 2025 and is currently under peer review.
Co-design study at Kunsthal Rotterdam (2024), photos by Chantal van den Berg
Beyond this co-design session, the project has been disseminated publicly and academically. In April 2024, Michel Witter presented selected findings during the Sencity Festival in Utrecht. Under the theme Whatif you had an extra sense?, the event created a dialogical space with a broad audience, including users, artists, and developers of sensory technologies. In June 2025, he contributed to the international conference USH2025 in Nijmegen, engaging with communities affected by Usher syndrome and establishing new interdisciplinary contacts relevant to the research trajectory.
Educationally, the project continues to inform the Health by Design master’s track at Avans, where insights from the PhD journey have supported curriculum development and student supervision,
Ongoing investigation, started in September 2016.
Principle investigator
Michel Witter
Other researchers involved
Alwin De Rooij, Tilburg University
Antal Ruhl
Professor
Michel van Dartel
Funding
Avans University of Applied Sciences
SIA RAAK project SAPS: Sensory Augmentation for Public Space
Collaborators
BUas (Breda University of Applied Sciences, previously NHTV)
HUMAN-lab from CMD, Breda
Dansgroep De Stilte, Breda
Philips Research, Eindhoven
Sencity festival, Utrecht
Tilburg School of Humanities and Digital Sciences Department Communication en Cognition, Tilburg University
Industries
KITT Engineering, Enschede
V2_Lab for Unstable Media, Rotterdam
Institute
Avans University of Applied Sciences
‘Investigating the potential of sensory augmentation to bridge the sensory gap between deaf and hearing.’
Michel Witter, with a foundation in computer science and digital art, integrates technology and art in education. As a tutor since 2002 at Communication & Multimedia Design program of Avans, he specializes in information design and accessibility. Currently, Michel is researching sensory augmentation for his PhD.
Witter, M. & Calvi, L. (2017), Enabling Augmented Sense-Making (and Pure Experience) with Wearable Technology, In Y. Chisik, J. Holopainen, R. Khaled, J.L. Silva & P.A. Silva (Eds.) Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST) 215: Intelligent Technologies for Interactive Entertainment, pp. 136-141. Springer: Berlin.
de Rooij, A., van Dartel, M., Ruhl, A., Schraffenberger, H., van Melick, B., Bontje, M., Daams, M., and Witter, M. (2017), Sensory Augmentation Interfaces: A Dialogue between the Arts and Sciences, In A. Brooks, Brooks, E. & Vidakis, N. (Eds.) Lecture Notes of the Institute for Computer Sciences, Social Informatics and Telecommunications Engineering (LNICST): Interactivity, Game Creation, Design, Learning, and Innovation. Springer: Berlin.
Living in cities developed around data and acting within the inscrutable structure of our techno-society demands art and design that can help understand how we relate to these rapidly changing surroundings and to reflect on that relationship. The research group Situated Art, Design and Technology responds to this exigency by fostering a situated turn in art and design through a diverse portfolio of interdisciplinary research projects in partnership with academic and cultural partners, as well as with government and industry.
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