Neung Ryu, Hye-Young Jo, Michel Pahud, Mike Sinclair, and Andrea Bianchi.
🏅 Honorable Mention Award
Abstract
Virtual Reality experiences, such as games and simulations, typically support the usage of bimanual controllers to interact with virtual objects. To recreate the haptic sensation of holding objects of various shapes and behaviors with both hands, previous researchers have used mechanical linkages between the controllers that render adjustable stiffness. However, the linkage cannot quickly adapt to simulate dynamic objects, nor it can be removed to support free movements. This paper introduces GamesBond, a pair of 4-DoF controllers without physical linkage but capable to create the illusion of being connected as a single device, forming a virtual bond. The two controllers work together by dynamically displaying and physically rendering deformations of hand grips, and so allowing users to perceive a single connected object between the hands, such as a jumping rope. With a user study and various applications we show that GamesBond increases the realism, immersion, and enjoyment of bimanual interaction.
Problem: Mechanical Linkages between Bimanual Controllers Lacks Adaptability and Portability.
Bimannual controllers with mechanical links can render different stiffness of objects on hands and create immersive virtual reality experiences. However, the physical locking mechanism between two controllers restricts the user's movement and cannot render the haptics of highly dynamic objects with many degrees of freedom, such as a jumping rope held in the hands.
Solution: Virtual Bond that creates an Illusion of Physical Linkage using Grip Deformation
We introduce GamesBond, a pair of 4-DoF controllers with no physical linkage between them but still capable of creating the haptic illusion of a virtual bond connecting the controllers as a single device. GamesBond mechanically changes the shape of one or both controllers’ handles by bending, twisting, and stretching. This causes kinesthetic deformations of the skin and creates the illusion of a single coordinated motion.
GamesBond System
Application
The GamesBond controllers can simulate various immersive game experiences, rendering 1) a jumping rope, 2) the illusion of force, and 3) various grip shapes.
Reference
Neung Ryu, Hye-Young Jo, Michel Pahud, Mike Sinclair, and Andrea Bianchi. 2021. GamesBond: Bimanual Haptic Illusion of Physically Connected Objects for Immersive VR Using Grip Deformation. Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 125, 1–10. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445727