HapticIO, BMBF

Virtual tool that feel real

 

Funded by the BMBF
Duration: 2021-2024

 
Project partners
Berlin University of Applied Sciences and Technology
Intuity Media Lab
Konstrktiv GmbH
TH Ingolstadt
University of Regensburg

Motivation
With digital tools, you hardly use the previous knowledge from working with their analogue counterparts. Complex manual actions are not possible with them. This is mainly due to limited haptic input options. In order to enable physical interactions with objects to be experienced even over distances, haptic feedback in a natural form is missing.

Goals and approach
The HapticIO project provides a remedy for this and is developing a new universal haptic controller for augmented reality and virtual reality applications. It supports both haptic inputs and outputs and dynamically networks with objects and intelligent tools. Specifically, the controller should feel like the tools or controls it represents and can be operated in the same way. In addition, the controller should allow virtual objects and digital information to be edited and be networked with other digital tools in order to work and learn with other users. The goal is an intelligent controller that, like a computer mouse, can take over the functions of a variety of tools and controls as a single input device.

Innovations and perspectives
The main innovation of the controller lies in its universal technical approach and its intuitive operation. In addition, wireless networking and contextualization enables real-world usage scenarios for a range of intelligent tools.

Project-related publications

Juan F. Olaya-Figueroa, Ferdinand Streicher, Marco Kurzweg, Jan Willms, and Katrin Wolf. 2023. HapticCollider: Ungrounded Force Feedback for Rigid Collisions during Virtual Tool Use. In Proceedings of Mensch und Computer 2023 (MuC ’23). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 116–126. https://doi.org/10.1145/3603555.3603568. HONOURABLE MENTION

Juan F. Olaya-Figueroa and Katrin Wolf. 2022. Haptic Tools: Enhancing Tool Capabilities by Tactile-kinesthetic Feedback. In AVI’22: ACM International Conference on Advanced Visual Interfaces, June 06–10, 2022, Roma, Italy. ACM, New York, NY, USA, 4 pages