A Haptic Framework for the Study of Inter-Molecular Interactions in Chemistry Teaching

Haptic technologies have received increasing attention in recent years. The sensation of touch and / or force experienced by the user can be employed for didactic purposes. With respect to the educational context, the use of learning environments coupled with haptic technologies can significantly contribute to the experimentation and simulation of sensations that cannot be experienced directly in the real world, or used to help students to become familiar with concepts otherwise knowledgeable only through textbooks. In this work, a haptic system developed specifically for tactile exploration of the electrostatic surface of molecules is presented. After a brief description of the architecture, the article describes how it has been introduced in the usual teaching activity. Users feedbacks and impressions are also reported.