Electrotactile Feedback For Enhancing Contact Information in Virtual Reality

This paper presents a wearable electrotactile feedback system to enhance contact information for mid-air interactions with virtual objects. In particular, we propose the use of electrotactile feedback to render the interpenetration distance between the user’s finger and the virtual content is touched. Our approach consists of modulating the perceived intensity (frequency and pulse width modulation) of the electrotactile stimuli according to the registered interpenetration distance. In a user study (N=21), we assessed the performance of four different interpenetration feedback approaches: electrotactile-only, visual-only, electrotactile and visual, and no interpenetration feedback. First, the results showed that contact precision and accuracy were significantly improved when using interpenetration feedback. Second, and more interestingly, there were no significant differences between visual and electrotactile feedback when the calibration was optimized and the user was familiarized with electrotactile feedback. Taken together, these results suggest that electrotactile feedback could be an efficient replacement of visual feedback for enhancing contact information in virtual reality avoiding the need of active visual focus and the rendering of additional

[1]  Zhibin Li,et al.  Study of Multimodal Interfaces and the Improvements on Teleoperation , 2020, IEEE Access.

[2]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  A Fingertip Haptic Display for Improving Curvature Discrimination , 2008, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[3]  Mar Gonzalez-Franco,et al.  The uncanny valley of haptics , 2018, Science Robotics.

[4]  Giuseppina C. Gini,et al.  A Multi-Modal Haptic Interface for Virtual Reality and Robotics , 2008, J. Intell. Robotic Syst..

[5]  Dario Farina,et al.  Virtual Grasping: Closed-Loop Force Control Using Electrotactile Feedback , 2014, Comput. Math. Methods Medicine.

[6]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Compensating for Fingertip Size to Render Tactile Cues More Accurately , 2020, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[7]  G L Aiello,et al.  Multidimensional electrocutaneous stimulation. , 1998, IEEE transactions on rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[8]  Vincent Hayward,et al.  Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[9]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Altering the Stiffness, Friction, and Shape Perception of Tangible Objects in Virtual Reality Using Wearable Haptics , 2020, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[10]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  A constraint-based god-object method for haptic display , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[11]  Florian Gosselin,et al.  Design and development of miniature wearable haptic interfaces for the fingertips , 2017, 2017 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[12]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  The Touch Thimble: Providing Fingertip Contact Feedback During Point-Force Haptic Interaction , 2008, 2008 Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems.

[13]  Koren Ward,et al.  Tele-operation of a robot arm with electro tactile feedback , 2013, 2013 IEEE/ASME International Conference on Advanced Intelligent Mechatronics.

[14]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  A new wearable fingertip haptic interface for the rendering of virtual shapes and surface features , 2016, 2016 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS).

[15]  Wael Bachta,et al.  Smooth transition-based control of encounter-type haptic devices , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[16]  Marco Santello,et al.  Electrotactile stimulation on the tongue: Intensity perception, discrimination, and cross-modality estimation , 2009, Somatosensory & motor research.

[17]  Daniel W. Carruth.  Virtual reality for education and workforce training , 2017, 2017 15th International Conference on Emerging eLearning Technologies and Applications (ICETA).

[18]  Flemming Konradsen,et al.  A review of the use of virtual reality head-mounted displays in education and training , 2017, Education and Information Technologies.

[19]  Xuesong Zhang,et al.  Outline Pursuits: Gaze-assisted Selection of Occluded Objects in Virtual Reality , 2020, CHI.

[20]  Hiroyuki Kajimoto,et al.  Wearable tactile device using mechanical and electrical stimulation for fingertip interaction with virtual world , 2017, 2017 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR).

[21]  Linda R. Elliott,et al.  Comparing the effects of visual-auditory and visual-tactile feedback on user performance: a meta-analysis , 2006, ICMI '06.

[22]  Xavier de Tinguy,et al.  WeATaViX: WEarable Actuated TAngibles for VIrtual Reality eXperiences , 2020, EuroHaptics.

[23]  Robin Wolff,et al.  A lightweight electrotactile feedback device for grasp improvement in immersive virtual environments , 2016, 2016 IEEE Virtual Reality (VR).

[24]  Kouta Minamizawa,et al.  A Wearable Haptic Display to Present the Gravity Sensation - Preliminary Observations and Device Design , 2007, Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07).

[25]  H. Kajimoto,et al.  Tactile Feeling Display using Functional Electrical Stimulation , 1999 .

[26]  Lav R. Varshney,et al.  Why do we perceive logarithmically? , 2013 .

[27]  Christoph W. Borst,et al.  Design and Evaluation of Visual Interpenetration Cues in Virtual Grasping , 2016, IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics.

[28]  Mikel Sagardia,et al.  A fast and robust Six-DoF god object heuristic for haptic rendering of complex models with friction , 2016, VRST.

[29]  Meredith Ringel Morris,et al.  SeeingVR: A Set of Tools to Make Virtual Reality More Accessible to People with Low Vision , 2019, CHI.

[30]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  Combining Wearable Finger Haptics and Augmented Reality: User Evaluation Using an External Camera and the Microsoft HoloLens , 2018, IEEE Robotics and Automation Letters.

[31]  Mitchell E. Tyler,et al.  Interaction of Perceived Frequency and Intensity in Fingertip Electrotactile Stimulation: Dissimilarity Ratings and Multidimensional Scaling , 2017, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[32]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  A Three Revolute-Revolute-Spherical Wearable Fingertip Cutaneous Device for Stiffness Rendering , 2018, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[33]  Miltiadis K. Hatalis,et al.  Tactile displays: Overview and recent advances , 2008, Displays.

[34]  Hiroyuki Kajimoto,et al.  Effect of Electrical Stimulation Haptic Feedback on Perceptions of Softness-Hardness and Stickiness While Touching a Virtual Object , 2018, 2018 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR).

[35]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  The hRing: A wearable haptic device to avoid occlusions in hand tracking , 2016, 2016 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS).

[36]  Claudio Pacchierotti,et al.  A Modular Wearable Finger Interface for Cutaneous and Kinesthetic Interaction: Control and Evaluation , 2020, IEEE Transactions on Industrial Electronics.

[37]  Xavier de Tinguy,et al.  Enhancing the Stiffness Perception of Tangible Objects in Mixed Reality Using Wearable Haptics , 2018, 2018 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (VR).

[38]  Koren Ward,et al.  Electro-tactile feedback system to enhance virtual reality experience , 2016 .

[39]  Jian-Jun Zhang,et al.  Virtual reality based laparoscopic surgery simulation , 2015, VRST.