Tactile Feedback at the Finger Tips for Improved Direct Interaction in Immersive Environments

摘要

We present a new tactile feedback system for finger-based interactions in immersive virtual reality applications that consists of shape memory alloy wires wrapped around tracked finger thimbles. The wires touch the inside of the finger tips and provide an impression when they are shortened. We use this system to communicate finger contacts with virtual objects in an application for usability and reachability studies of car interiors. Our experiments and an initial pilot study revealed that this type of feedback helps users to perform direct manipulation tasks with more reliability.