Intersensa

Razer's Project Esther lets tactile feedback vary in intensity, speed, duration and spatial direction, but creating those patterns meant days of coding. Intersensa is a plugin for the Interhaptics ecosystem that turns haptic design into a visual, no-code workflow. Think audio-editing software, but for touch, built through Research-through-Design alongside the hardware itself.

Coding spatial haptics is slow, the technology was brand new, and consistency across devices is hard. The goal: the simplest possible interface that still covers everything from a sword slash to a racing-engine rumble designed in parallel with a moving target, so we explored through iteration rather than a fixed spec.

Research across spatial-audio and haptic tools surfaced one idea: haptic design should feel familiar a timeline, keyframes, and a spatial viewport. Real gaming scenarios (a cut travelling across the body, footsteps from behind, an explosion radiating out) defined the four things the tool had to control: where, how strong, how long, and when.

The interface settled into three zones: a 3D viewport to place impact on a body model, a timeline to keyframe intensity and timing, and a settings panel for duration and device mapping. The hardest part was blending the viewport with the timeline without overwhelming anyone every element that wasn't self-explanatory got cut.

A workshop with 10 HCI master's students watched three game scenarios a sword cut, approaching footsteps, an explosion then were interviewed and thematically coded. The clearest issue: the timeline didn't communicate changes in impact area and intensity well enough. Those findings drove the final refinements.

Interhaptics planned to produce Intersensa in 2025–2026. By borrowing patterns from tools designers already know audio editors, animation timelines, 3D viewports it lowers the barrier to an emerging technology. Next: real-time device preview and Unity/Unreal integration.