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HapticTrace

HapticTrace is a desktop tool for recording and analyzing haptic-response events. It combines sensor data from phyphox, iPhone/iPad screen capture, and post-analysis tools. After recording, you can correlate the video with the measured signal, adjust the offset, and save the result for repeated analysis.

Platform: macOS only

What it does

• captures sensor data via phyphox
• provides live preview and records the iPhone/iPad screen
• supports recording modes: Sensors + Video, Sensors Only, Video Only
• displays the signal and spectrogram
• plays back recorded video on a shared timeline
• supports automatic and manual offset adjustment
• saves and loads sessions as .zip
• compares multiple sessions

Requirements

• macOS
• Python 3
• a device running phyphox, reachable over the network
• an iPhone or iPad available to macOS as a screen capture source
• internet access on the first launch from source

Primary workflow

The primary mode is synchronized recording of sensor data and on-screen context followed by analysis.

A typical setup uses two mobile devices:

• Device 1 (phone) — sensor module with phyphox
  Used to capture accelerometer and gyroscope data.
• Device 2 (phone) — target iPhone/iPad
  Runs the application under test, plays haptics, and provides screen capture.
• Mac — host running HapticTrace
  Connects to the sensor device over the network and to the iPhone/iPad over USB through the macOS screen capture stack.

Preparation

1. Open phyphox on the sensor device.
2. Create or load an experiment with accelerometer and gyroscope enabled.
3. Enable remote access in phyphox and obtain the experiment URL.
4. Connect the iPhone/iPad to the Mac over USB as a screen capture source.
5. Rigidly fix both devices relative to each other (for example, in a stacked "sandwich" setup):
   • iPhone/iPad — screen facing up
   • sensor device — screen facing down

During recording, the devices must not shift relative to each other. Any parasitic motion directly affects measurement quality.

Workflow

1. Launch HapticTrace on the Mac.
2. Connect the sensor device using the phyphox URL.
3. Connect the iPhone/iPad as the video source.
4. Start recording (Play button in the main window).
5. Trigger haptics in the application under test (on the iPhone/iPad).
6. Stop recording.
7. Analyze the signal and align it with on-screen activity on the shared timeline.

Additional modes

In addition to the primary synchronized workflow, HapticTrace also supports standalone recording modes:

• Sensors Only — capture sensor data without video
• Video Only — record screen output without sensors

Run

From source

From terminal

./run_app.sh --url http://<device_local_ip>:8080

On first launch, the script creates .venv, updates pip, and installs runtime dependencies automatically.

From Finder

run_app.command

Release

Open HapticTrace.app from the prepared release build.

Documentation

Contents

1. Project overview — start here
2. Usage — continue with usage and workflow
3. Development — local setup, dependencies, tests, and release builds
4. Troubleshooting — common operational issues
5. Third-Party Notices — third-party package notices

License

Apache-2.0