The Haptic Hand Providing User Interface Feedback with

The Haptic Hand: Providing User Interface Feedback with the Non-Dominant Hand in Virtual Environments Luv Kohli INLS 357 December 1, 2004 Final Project

Outline • • Problem Current techniques Idea First attempt Issues Second attempt Results Future work

Problem • Lack of touch feedback (haptics) in VR is disturbing • Interaction without haptics is difficult • How do you present an interface to the user?

Current techniques Images from Robert Lindeman

Idea • Carrying a paddle can be tiresome • How do you get rid of the paddle when you don’t need the interface anymore? • Idea: use surface of non-dominant hand for haptic feedback • Is this feasible?

Trackers

First attempt • No calibration • Interface floats in virtual world • Activate widget by moving open nondominant hand behind widget • Point with dominant hand to use widget • Grasping panel with non-dominant hand moves panel with hand

Issues and qualitative observations from pilot tests • Lack of haptics strikes again! • Extremely difficult to line hand up with interface and remain steady • Observation: may be better to snap interface to hand’s plane in the environment and move panel with open hand

A new problem surfaces • If the panel is moving with your open hand, how do you select which widget to activate?

A possible solution? • Reverse gestures! • Grasping gesture now frees hand from panel and allows widget selection • Grasping and ungrasping snaps closest widget to hand • Unintuitive at first, but learned quickly

Second attempt • Reversed gestures • Added some calibration Y Y X X Z Z

Results

Qualitative observations from pilot tests • Snapping panel to hand is much more effective • Reversed gestures are learned very quickly • Calibration still a very large issue – Especially registration between right and left hands

Future Work • Improve calibration! • Run full usability study once calibration changes are made • Run study directly comparing with paddle interface

Comments? Questions? Thank you!