We propose a new approach for interaction in Virtual Reality (VR) using mobile robots as proxies for haptic feedback. This approach allows VR users to have the experience of sharing and manipulating tangible physical objects with remote collaborators. Because participants do not directly observe the robotic proxies, the mapping between them and the virtual objects is not required to be direct. In this paper, we describe our implementation, various scenarios for interaction, and a preliminary user study.
Manipulating multiple virtual objects is always a challenge, in that precisely-located haptic proxy objects are required. @cite_8 proposed multiple approaches to align physical and virtual objects. Redirected touching @cite_11 considered the inflexibility of passive haptic displays and introduced a deliberate inconsistency between real hands and virtual hands. In redirected touching, a single real object could provide haptic feedback for virtual objects of various shapes to enrich the mapping between virtual objects and physical proxies.
@cite_11 @cite_8
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There is an increasing interest in deployable virtual military training systems. Haptic feedback for these training systems can enable users to interact more naturally with the training environment, but is difficult to deploy. Passive haptic feedback is very compelling, but it is also inflexible. Changes made to virtual objects can require time-consuming changes to their physical passive-haptic counterparts. This poster explores the possibility of mapping many differently shaped virtual objects onto one physical object by warping virtual space and exploiting the dominance of the visual system. A first implementation that maps different virtual objects onto dynamically captured physical geometry is presented, and potential applications to deployable military trainers are discussed. Manipulating a virtual object with appropriate passive haptic cues provides a satisfying sense of presence in virtual reality. However, scaling such experiences to support multiple virtual objects is a challenge as each one needs to be accompanied with a precisely-located haptic proxy object. We propose a solution that overcomes this limitation by hacking human perception. We have created a framework for repurposing passive haptics, called haptic retargeting, that leverages the dominance of vision when our senses conflict. With haptic retargeting, a single physical prop can provide passive haptics for multiple virtual objects. We introduce three approaches for dynamically aligning physical and virtual objects: world manipulation, body manipulation and a hybrid technique which combines both world and body manipulation. Our study results indicate that all our haptic retargeting techniques improve the sense of presence when compared to typical wand-based 3D control of virtual objects. Furthermore, our hybrid haptic retargeting achieved the highest satisfaction and presence scores while limiting the visible side-effects during interaction.