ENTROPiA: Towards Infinite Surface Haptic Displays in Virtual Reality Using Encountered-Type Rotating Props

Abstract

In this paper, we propose a novel approach towards an infinite surface haptic display. Our approach, named ENcountered-Type ROtating Prop Approach (ENTROPiA) is based on a cylindrical spinning prop attached to a robot's end-effector serving as an encountered-type haptic display (ETHD). This type of haptic display permits the users to have an unconstrained, free-hand contact with a surface being provided by a robotic device for the users' to encounter a surface to be touched. In our approach, the sensation of touching a virtual surface is given by an interaction technique that couples with the sliding movement of the prop under the users' finger by tracking their hand location and establishing a path to be explored. This approach enables large motion for a larger surface rendering, permits to render multi-textured haptic feedback, and leverages the ETHD approach introducing large motion and sliding/friction sensations. As a part of our contribution, a proof of concept was designed for illustrating our approach. A user study was conducted to assess the perception of our approach showing a significant performance for rendering the sensation of touching a large flat surface. Our novel approach could be used to render large haptic surfaces in applications such as rapid prototyping for automobile design.

A Survey on the Use of Haptic Feedback for Brain-Computer Interfaces and Neurofeedback

“…Only feedback related to vibration, contact, pressure, temperature, FIGURE 2 | Wearability in haptic devices: from grounded haptic interfaces to more wearable and portable designs. (A) ENTROPiA, a cylindrical spinning prop attached to a robot to provide haptic virtual texture (Mercado et al, 2019); (B) a hand exoskeleton for natural pitching (Lucas et al, 2004); (C) a cutaneous display providing normal and shear stimuli (Pacchierotti et al, 2016).…”

“…On the left are two representative examples of tactile stimulation interfaces: vibrotactile actuators [C2-tactors(Cincotti et al, 2007a)]; pressure and contact interfaces(Chinello et al, 2012). On the right are two representative examples of kinesthetic stimulation interfaces: Orthosis developed byRamos-Murguialday et al (2012); grounded force interface ENTROPiA(Mercado et al, 2019).…”

Visuo-Haptic Mixed Reality Simulation Using Unbound Handheld Tools

“…On the other hand, common features such as rendering haptic texture and providing 6-DoF interaction is a challenge for an ETHD compared to a conventional kinesthetic haptic device. A possible solution for texture rendering is to use a wide end-effector with multiple portions of physical textures, similar to the work of [27]. Then a suitable portion can be encountered with the tool at different times.…”

“…A transparent, flexible plate is manipulated in 4 degrees-of-freedom (DoF) by two 3-DoF parallel robots, based on the position of the user's finger. Articulated robot arms are used as ETHDs in [25][26][27] for interactions with wide flat virtual surfaces such as walls and desktops. The first two studies use flat, static props, whereas the third demonstrates a multi-textured spinning prop for a richer rendering with sliding and friction sensations.…”

Design and Evaluation of Interaction Techniques Dedicated to Integrate Encountered-Type Haptic Displays in Virtual Environments

“…In order to explore a surface larger than the end-effector, the community has been looking forward to displace the contact area. An adequate integration between interaction strategy and end-effector's physical properties permits to recreate different surfaces that can go beyond what is physically represented on the device [4,8,13,24,27,33]. Previous works have relied on strategies such as visuo-haptic illusion, user redirection and active surface displacement.…”