Thomas Howard
Email :thomas.howard@irisa.fr
Bio
I am currently a postdoctoral researcher with CNRS at IRISA in Rennes, working within the framework of the H2020 European Project « H-Reality ». Born in 1987 in Munich, Germany, I received a dual M.Sc. from Arts et Métiers Paritech (Metz/Paris) and Ingenieursdiplom from the Karlsruhe Institut für Technologie (KIT) in 2012. I went on to join the Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR) at Université Paris VI as a research engineer, working on the development of a passive mechanical 3rd arm for minimally invasive surgery. This led me to start my Ph.D. at the same lab, in the Agathe team (medical robotics) and under the supervision of Pr. Jérôme Szewczyk, on the topic of haptic feedback for minimally invasive surgery instruments. I defended in late 2016 before taking a 2-year sabbatical to travel the world. My core interest lies in the study of haptic feedback technologies, both from the perspective of applications and that of human haptic perception.
Curriculum Vitae (pdf)
Publications
Alexandre Audinot, Diane Dewez, Gwendal Fouché, Rebecca Fribourg, Thomas Howard, Flavien Lécuyer, … and Guillaume Vailland (2020, March). 3Dexterity: Finding your place in a 3-armed world. In 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces Abstracts and Workshops (VRW) (pp. 521-522). IEEE. (Best 3DUI demo honorable mention)
Thomas Howard, Maud Marchal, Anatole Lécuyer, and Claudio Pacchierotti, PUMAH: Pan-tilt Ultrasound Mid-Air Haptics for larger interaction workspace in virtual reality. IEEE Transactions on Haptics, 13(1), 38-44, 2019.
Thomas Howard, Gerard Gallagher, Anatole Lécuyer, Claudio Pacchierotti, and Maud Marchal, “Investigating the Recognition of Local Shapes Using Mid-air Ultrasound Haptics”, IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC) 2019
Hugo Brument, Rebecca Fribourg, Gerard Gallagher, Thomas Howard, Flavien Lécuyer, Tiffany Luong, Victor Mercado, Etienne Peillard, Xavier de Tinguy, and Maud Marchal, “Pyramid Escape: Design of Novel Passive Haptics Interactions for an Immersive and Modular Scenario”, IEEE VR 3DUI contest 2019 (Best 3DUI demo award)
Thomas Howard, “Haptic feedback for laparoscopic surgery instruments, Ph.D.Thesis, Paris VI 2016
Thomas Howard, Jérome Szewczyk, “Improving Precision in Navigating Laparoscopic Surgery Instruments toward a Planar Target Using Haptic and Visual Feedback”, Frontiers in Robotics and AI 3, 37, 2016
Thomas Howard, Jérome Szewczyk, “Assisting Control of Forces in Laparoscopy Using Tactile and Visual Sensory Substitution”, New Trends in Medical and Service Robots, 151-164, 2016
Thomas Howard, Jérome Szewczyk, “Haptic and visuo-haptic feedback for guiding laparoscopic surgery gestures”. Computer Assisted Radiology and Surgery, Jun 2015, Barcelona, Spain.
Thomas Howard, Jérome Szewczyk, “Haptic and visuo-haptic feedback for guiding laparoscopic surgery gestures”, SURGETICA 2014, Chambéry.
Thomas Howard, Jérome Szewczyk, “Visuo-haptic feedback for 1-D Guidance in laparoscopic surgery”, IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference on Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob2014), 2014, São Paulo
Thomas Howard, “Haptic feedback for dexterous laparoscopic surgery instruments”, CAMI Workshop 2013, Paris.
Thomas Howard, Laurent Berviller, Patrick Zattarin, Gabriel Abba, “Optimized design for the knee structure of a humanoid robot », ASME 2012 11th Biennial Conference on Engineering Systems Design and Analysis, pp 391-397
Albers, A.; Trautmann, S.; Howard, T.; Trong Anh Nguyen; Frietsch, M.; Sauter, C.; , “Semi-autonomous flying robot for physical interaction with environment,” Robotics Automation and Mechatronics (RAM), 2010 IEEE Conference on , vol., no., pp.441-446, 28-30 June 2010
doi: 10.1109/RAMECH.2010.5513152
