Impacto: Simulating Physical Impact by Combining Tactile Stimulation with Electrical Muscle Stimulation

ABSTRACT

We present impacto, a device designed to render the haptic sensation of hitting or being hit in virtual reality. The key idea that allows the small and light impacto device to simulate a strong hit is that it decomposes the stimulus: it renders the tactile aspect of being hit by tapping the skin using a solenoid; it adds impact to the hit by thrusting the user's arm backwards using electrical muscle stimulation. The device is self-contained, wireless, and small enough for wearable use, thus leaves the user unencumbered and able to walk around freely in a virtual environment. The device is of generic shape, allowing it to also be worn on legs, so as to enhance the experience of kicking, or merged into props, such as a baseball bat. We demonstrate how to assemble multiple impacto units into a simple haptic suit. Participants of our study rated impact simulated using impacto's combination of solenoid hit and electrical muscle stimulation as more realistic than either technique in isolation.

References

1. Axivity Serial Library, http://axivity.com/downloads/4 , last accessed on 13/03/2015.
2. Bark, K., Wheeler, J.W., Premakumar, S., and Cutkosky, M.R. Comparison of skin stretch and vibrotactile stimulation for feedback of proprioceptive information. Proc. HAPTICS'08, 71--78.
3. Brewster, S. and Brown, L.M. Tactons: structured tactile messages for non-visual information display. Proc. AUIC'04, 15--23.
4. Brewster, S., Chohan, F., and Brown, L. Tactile feedback for mobile interactions. Proc. CHI'07, 159--162.
5. Caswell, N.A., Yardley, R.T., Montandon, M.N., and Provancher, W.R. Design of a forearm-mounted directional skin stretch device. Proc. HAPTICS'12, 365--370.
6. Farbiz, F., Yu, Z. H., Manders, C., and Ahmad, W. An electrical muscle stimulation haptic feedback for mixed reality tennis game. Proc. SIGGRAPH'07 (posters).
7. GearVR, http://www.samsung.com/global/microsite/gearvr/, last accessed on 11/04/2015.
8. Gruenbaum P., McNeely W., Sowizral H., Overman T., and Knutson B., Implementation of dynamic robotic graphics for a virtual control panel, Proc. Presence'97, 118--126.
9. Hasegawa, S., Toshiaki, I., Hashimoto, N., Salvati, M., Mitake, H., Koike, Y.,and Sato, M. Human-scale haptic interaction with a reactive virtual human in a real-time physics simulator. In Computers in Entertainment 4(3), 2006, Article 6C.
10. Henderson, S. and Feiner, S. Opportunistic controls: leveraging natural affordances as tangible user interfaces for augmented reality. Proc. VRST'08, 211--218.
11. Hollerbach J. and Jacobsen S. Haptic Interfaces for Teleoperation and Virtual Environments. Proc. Workshop on Simulation and Interaction in Virtual Environments'95, 13--15.
12. Hoshi, T., Takashami, M., Iwamoto, T., and Shinoda, H. Noncontact tactile display based on radiation pressure of Airborne Ultrasound. In IEEE Trans. Haptics. 3, 2010, 155--165.
13. Jeong, S., Hashimoto, N., and Makoto, S. A novel interaction system with force feedback between real - and virtual human: an entertainment system: "virtual catch ball". Proc. ACE'04, 61--66.
14. Kramer, J., Force feedback and Texture Simulating Interface device, U.S. Patent 5,184,319.
15. Kron, A., and Schmidt, G. Multi-fingered Tactile Feedback from Virtual and Remote Environments. Proc. HAPTICS'03, 16--23.
16. Kuroki, S., Kajimoto, H., Nii, H., Kawakami, N., Tachi, S., Proposal for tactile sense presentation that combines electrical and mechanical stimulus, Proc. World Haptics'07. 121,126..
17. Li, K.A., Baudisch, P., Griswold, W.G., and Hollan, J.D. Tapping and Rubbing: Exploring New Dimensions of Tactile Feedback with Voice Coil Motors. Proc. UIST'08, 181--190.
18. Lindeman, W., Yanagida, Y., Noma, H., and Hosaka, K. Wearable vibrotactile systems for virtual contact and information display. In Virtual Reality 9(2), 2006, 203--213.
19. Lopes, P., and Baudisch, P. Muscle-propelled force feedback: bringing force feedback to mobile devices. Proc. CHI'13, 2577--2580.
20. Murayama, J., Bougrila, L., Luo, Y., Akahane, K., Hasegawa, S., Hirsbrunner, B., Sato, M. SPIDAR G&G: a two-handed haptic interface for bimanual VR interaction. Proc. EuroHaptics'04, 138--146.
21. Norman, G., Likert scales, levels of measurement and the "laws" of statistics, In Advances in Health Sciences Education, 2010, Volume 15, Issue 5, 625--632.
22. Ramsamy, P., Haffegee, A., Jamieson, R., and Alexandrov, V. Using haptics to improve immersion in virtual environments. Proc. ICCS'06, 603--609.
23. Rank, M., Shi, Z., Müller, H. & Hirche, S. (2010) Perception of Delay in Haptic Telepresence Systems, Presence,19(5), 389--399.
24. Rekimoto, J., Traxion: a tactile interaction device with virtual force sensation. Proc. UIST'13, 427--432.
25. Sodhi,R., Poupyrev, I., Glisson, M., and Israr, A., AIREAL: interactive tactile experiences in free air. In ACM Trans. Graph. 32, 4, 2013, Article 134.
26. Sutherland, I. A head-mounted three dimensional display. Proc. AFIPS'68, 757--764.
27. Tsetserukou, D., Sato, K., and Tachi, S. ExoInterfaces: novel exosceleton haptic interfaces for virtual reality, augmented sport and rehabilitation. Proc. AH'10, 1--6.
28. Wen Qi, W., Taylor, R., Healey, C., and Martens, J. A comparison of immersive HMD, fish tank VR and fish tank with haptics displays for volume visualization. Proc. APGV'06, 51--58.
29. Yokokohji, Y., Sugawara, Y., Kinoshita, J., and Yoshikawa T. Mechano-Media that Transmit Kinesthetic Knowledge from a Human to Other Humans. Proc. Robotics Research'01, 499--512 .
30. Foley, J. Interfaces for advanced computing. Sci. Am. 257, 4 (October 1987), 126--135.
31. Teck, F., Ling, C., Farbiz, F., and Zhiyong, H. Ungrounded haptic rendering device for torque simulation in virtual tennis. Proc. SIGGRAPH Emerging Technologies'12, Article 26.
32. Trzesniewski, J. Electric Baseball Hitting Game. US Patent No. 3531116A, Awarded Sep 29, 1970.

Index Terms

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction devices

      • Touch screens

    • Interaction paradigms