I'm really a sensitive person - I always notice that when I get into a new car and first of all have to run my fingers over the surfaces in the interior with my eyes closed. If I'm not satisfied here, then the “oven is already out” - the “drops sucked” or whatever you want to say.
Have feel or not!
For me it is particularly important that I feel comfortable in a car and in addition to the feeling of space, the smell and the look, the appearance of the surfaces is particularly important to me. The expert likes to say "haptics" and Aunt Wiki knows how to tell about the haptics:
As a haptic perception (Greek: haptos "Tangible", haptics "Suitable for touching") is the active sensing of the size, contours, surface texture, weight, etc. of an object by integrating all of them Skin senses and the Deep sensitivity. The totality of the haptic perceptions allows this Brainto localize and evaluate mechanical stimuli, temperature stimuli and pain.
The doctrine of haptic perception is called haptics bezeichnet.
However, it is precisely in the field of the automobile as a consumer good that not everyone has the same perceptions and - much more importantly - not everyone has the same wishes for a vehicle. While I am particularly demanding and expect soft foamed plastics in places that you can no longer see and rarely touch, others do not place any value on it.
But how do you come to an objective assessment?
This is where “Aunt Ruth” comes into play. RUTH stands for “Robotized Unit for Tactility and Haptics” - in other words: A robot that can assess the quality and functionality of vehicle interiors.
As far as I know, RUTH in the form presented to me in Aachen is so far unique. Because RUTH can not only “play around” with the buttons and surfaces in the laboratory for hours, but can also be brought into vehicle interiors and work directly in the vehicle.
RUTH only has “one” finger, but with this it works extremely precisely and particularly sensitively and can thus make extremely detailed statements about the quality of the materials used and about the “feeling” when switches and buttons are operated.
In comparison with RUHT, one can now create objective numbers and measured values from a “subjective” sensation.
I think:
Ingenious - and hopefully you can feel the development progress in the real car too.