Haptic Intelligence

Ungrounded Vari-Dimensional Tactile Fingertip Feedback for Virtual Object Interaction

2021

Conference Paper

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Compared to grounded force feedback, providing tactile feedback via a wearable device can free the user and broaden the potential applications of simulated physical interactions. However, neither the limitations nor the full potential of tactile-only feedback have been precisely examined. Here we investigate how the dimensionality of cutaneous fingertip feedback affects user movements and virtual object recognition. We combine a recently invented 6-DOF fingertip device with motion tracking, a head-mounted display, and novel contact-rendering algorithms to enable a user to tactilely explore immersive virtual environments. We evaluate rudimentary 1-DOF, moderate 3-DOF, and complex 6-DOF tactile feedback during shape discrimination and mass discrimination, also comparing to interactions with real objects. Results from 20 naive study participants show that higher-dimensional tactile feedback may indeed allow completion of a wider range of virtual tasks, but that feedback dimensionality surprisingly does not greatly affect the exploratory techniques employed by the user.

Author(s): Eric M. Young and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker
Book Title: CHI ’21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems
Pages: 217
Year: 2021
Month: May
Day: 8-13
Publisher: ACM
Department(s): Haptic Intelligence
Research Project(s): Novel Designs and Rendering Algorithms for Fingertip Haptic Devices
Bibtex Type: Conference Paper (inproceedings)
Paper Type: Conference
DOI: 10.1145/3411764.3445369
Event Name: Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2021)
Event Place: Yokohama
Address: New York, NY
ISBN: 978-1-4503-8096-6
State: Published
URL: https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445369

BibTex 

@inproceedings{Young21-CHI-Virtual,
  title = {Ungrounded Vari-Dimensional Tactile Fingertip Feedback for Virtual Object Interaction},
  author = {Young, Eric M. and Kuchenbecker, Katherine J.},
  booktitle = {CHI '21: Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
  pages = {217},
  publisher = {ACM},
  address = {New York, NY},
  month = may,
  year = {2021},
  doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445369},
  url = {https://dl.acm.org/doi/pdf/10.1145/3411764.3445369},
  month_numeric = {5}
}