HapticHead: 3D Guidance and Target Acquisition through a Vibrotactile Grid

Current generation virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) head-mounted displays (HMDs) usually include no or only a single vibration motor for haptic feedback and do not use it for guidance. We present HapticHead, a system utilizing 20 vibration motors distributed in three concentric ellipses around the head to give intuitive haptic guidance hints and to increase immersion for VR and AR applications. Our user study indicates that HapticHead is both faster (mean=3.7s, SD=2.3s vs. mean=7.8s, SD=5.0s) and more precise (92.7% vs. 44.9% hit rate) than auditory feedback for the purpose of finding virtual objects in 3D space around the user. The baseline of visual feedback is as expected more precise (99.9% hit rate) and faster (mean=1.5s, SD=0.6s) in comparison but there are many applications in which visual feedback is not desirable or available due to lighting conditions, visual overload, or visual impairments.

[1]  Thomas Hulin,et al.  Evaluation of a vibrotactile feedback device for spatial guidance , 2011, 2011 IEEE World Haptics Conference.

[2]  Fan Xiao,et al.  The Omnidirectional Attention Funnel: A Dynamic 3D Cursor for Mobile Augmented Reality Systems , 2006, Proceedings of the 39th Annual Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences (HICSS'06).

[3]  Michael Beigl,et al.  ProximityHat: a head-worn system for subtle sensory augmentation with tactile stimulation , 2015, SEMWEB.

[4]  Bodo Urban,et al.  Exploring vibrotactile feedback on the body and foot for the purpose of pedestrian navigation , 2015, iWOAR.

[5]  Hendrik A. H. C. van Veen,et al.  Waypoint navigation with a vibrotactile waist belt , 2005, TAP.

[6]  Maximilian Schirmer,et al.  Shoe me the Way: A Shoe-Based Tactile Interface for Eyes-Free Urban Navigation , 2015, MobileHCI.

[7]  Niels Henze,et al.  Tactile wayfinder: a non-visual support system for wayfinding , 2008, NordiCHI.

[8]  Tsutomu Terada,et al.  Proceedings of the 2015 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computers , 2015, SEMWEB.

[9]  Frank Biocca,et al.  Attention funnel: omnidirectional 3D cursor for mobile augmented reality platforms , 2006, CHI.

[10]  Dario Floreano,et al.  Quantifying Information Transfer Through a Head-Attached Vibrotactile Display: Principles for Design and Control , 2012, IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering.

[11]  Robert Gray,et al.  A Comparison of Tactile, Visual, and Auditory Warnings for Rear-End Collision Prevention in Simulated Driving , 2008, Hum. Factors.

[12]  Masatoshi Ishikawa,et al.  Augmenting spatial awareness with Haptic Radar , 2006, 2006 10th IEEE International Symposium on Wearable Computers.