Augmenting a Dielectric Elastomer Sensor Glove with Vibrotactile Feedback

Abstract

Virtual reality (VR) can provide a unique and immersive experience by allowing users to see and interact with virtual scenes and objects. With current technology being more capable of capturing human motion, VR users can directly interact with virtual environments and objects. The current limitation of object interaction in VR is the lack of tactility when touching and holding an object. The use of piezoelectric motors as a vibrotactile feedback device is explored. They are combined with a motion capturing glove with embedded dielectric elastomer (DE) sensors. The feedback device can convey different haptic information to the user by changing the feedback waveform. A haptic rendering algorithm is created to determine the appropriate frequency, magnitude and pattern of the feedback depending on the ongoing virtual interaction. Three user studies are performed to analyse the effect of vibrotactile feedback. The investigation quantifies improvements introduced by haptic feedback and highlights the system's ability to communicate different haptic information. In addition, an observation experiment is performed to determine how users tend to locate and interact with virtual objects without any visual information; the results can be used to improve the system in the future. The introduction of vibrotactile feedback to a motion capturing glove shows promise in improving the user experience and interaction performance. The haptic feedback system can be used in the future for testing haptic performance in virtual object interaction. Further developments would include improving the haptic rendering algorithm and exploring different waveforms of feedback.