ZoomWalls

Abstract

We focus on the problem of simulating the haptic infrastructure of a virtual environment (i.e. walls, doors). Our approach relies on multiple ZoomWalls-autonomous robotic encounter-type haptic wall-shaped props-that coordinate to provide haptic feedback for room-scale virtual reality. Based on a user's movement through the physical space, ZoomWall props are coordinated through a predict-and-dispatch architecture to provide just-in-time haptic feedback for objects the user is about to touch. To refne our system, we conducted simulation studies of different prediction algorithms, which helped us to refne our algorithmic approach to realize the physical ZoomWall prototype. Finally, we evaluated our system through a user experience study, which showed that participants found that ZoomWalls increased their sense of presence in the VR environment. ZoomWalls represents an instance of autonomous mobile reusable props, which we view as an important design direction for haptics in VR.

RedirectedDoors+: Door-Opening Redirection with Dynamic Haptics in Room-Scale VR

“…Consequently, researchers have explored encountertype haptic devices, which adaptively position haptic props according to the user's movements (see review papers, e.g., [31] for more details). Such devices have been developed through various implementations, including wheeled robots [13,30,32,52,59,64], 2D Cartesian robots [5], wearable actuators [3,16,23,33,58], and drones [1,2,63]. Here, we describe devices using wheeled robots, which are relevant to this study.…”

“…Wheeled robots have often been used for haptic representations of virtual objects fixed in the environment [13,32,52,64]. Examples include furniture-moving robots to reconfigure the physical environment aligned with VE [52] and wheeled robots with vertical surfaces to represent virtual walls [13,64].…”

“…At the same time, another major challenge in implementing current VR experiences is that haptic technology is still at a very rudimentary stage, and addressing this has been an active research topic in recent years. In the context of room-scale VR, researchers have studied encounter-type haptic interfaces that can represent the dynamic haptics of VEs using devices such as wheeled robots [13,32,52,59,64], 2D Cartesian robots [5], or drones [1,2,63]. However, these interfaces • Yukai Hoshikawa, Kazuyuki Fujita, Kazuki Takashima, and Yoshifumi Kitamura are with Tohoku University.…”

The Benefits of Passive Haptics and Perceptual Manipulation for Extended Reality Interactions in Constrained Passenger Spaces

“…Similar work by Hettiarachchi [34] proposed a system that adapts the virtual environment to the available surfaces, altering the appearance of physical objects by overlaying virtual models on top to reduce visual-haptic mismatch. Yixian et al [74] used wheelmounted wall surfaces that could be dynamically reconfigured to the users' 3D environment to enable a better spatial perception of the 3D space. Work by Cheng el al.…”

A room of one’s own: A high-accuracy calibration procedure to align spatial dimensions between a virtual and a real room

“…All in all, these studies demonstrate cases where it is indeed crucial to align the virtual room to the real room as closely as possible. Another example comes from the field of haptics (Yixian et al, 2020). While smaller objects can be combined with a tracker themselves and therefore can freely move within the virtual environment this may be more difficult for large objects or non-movable parts of the room (e.g.…”