Minimal Haptics for Enhancing Virtual Environments

Principal Investigator: Frederick P. Brooks, Jr.
Funding Agency: Office of Naval Research
Agency Number: N00014-01-1-0061

Abstract
In vehicle simulators, everything the user can reach is real, not virtual; the scene feelsright. We propose to exploit and evaluate this concept in more general VE's, by a technique we call static haptics and by minimal dynamic haptics. Using static haptics, we supplement high-fidelity visual representations with cheap, quickly altered low-fidelity real models of tangible features of the virtual world. The visual illusion dominates, so the perceived realism is significantly higher than that elicited by the visual illusion alone, in spite of the low fidelity of the haptics model. We propose to evaluate the technologies in controlled user studies to see if it improves the sense of presence and task performance.

As an alternate approach, we propose to explore a variety of minimal wearable haptics tactors, to develop one and investigate it in some detail, and to integrate limb tracking, collision detection, visual response, aural response, and haptic response into a unified wearable system.