VoxelHap: A Toolkit for Constructing Functional Proxies offering rich Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality

Martin Feick, Cihan Biyikli, Kiran Gani, Anton Wittig, Anthony Tang, and Antonio Krüger. (2023). VoxelHap: A Toolkit for Constructing Functional Proxies offering rich Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality. In UIST 2023: The 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software Technology. Acceptance: 121/483 - 25.1%.

Abstract

Experiencing virtual environments is often limited to abstract interactions with objects. We present the VoxelHap toolkit which enables users to construct highly functional proxy objects using Voxels and Plates. Voxels are blocks with special functionalities that form the core of each physical proxy. Plates increase a proxy’s haptic resolution, such as its shape, texture, or weight. Beyond providing physical capabilities to realize haptic sensations, VoxelHap utilizes physio-haptic VR illusion techniques to expand its haptic rendering capabilities. We illustrate the capabilities of the VoxelHap toolkit through the construction of a range of fully functional proxies across a variety of use cases and applications. In two experiments with 24 participants, we investigate a subset of the constructed proxies, and study how they compare to a traditional VR controller. First, we investigated VoxelHap’s combined haptic feedback and second, the trade-offs of using ShapePlates. Our findings show that VoxelHap’s proxies outperform traditional controllers and were generally favored by participants.

Materials

PDF File (http://hcitang.org/papers/2023-uist2023-feick-voxelhap.pdf)
Video (http://hcitang.org/papers/2023-uist2023-feick-voxelhap.mp4)
DOI (https://doi.org/10.1145/3586183.3606722)

BibTeX

@inproceedings{feick2023voxelhap,
  author = {Feick, Martin and Biyikli, Cihan and Gani, Kiran and Wittig, Anton and Tang, Anthony and Krüger, Antonio},
  title = {VoxelHap: A Toolkit for Constructing Functional Proxies offering rich Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality},
  year = {2023},
  type = {conference},
  booktitle = {UIST 2023: The 36th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software Technology},
  pdfurl = {http://hcitang.org/papers/2023-uist2023-feick-voxelhap.pdf},
  videourl = {http://hcitang.org/papers/2023-uist2023-feick-voxelhap.mp4},
  doi = {https://doi.org/10.1145/3586183.3606722},
  acceptance = {121/483 - 25.1%}
}