RecyGlide : A Forearm-worn Multi-modal Haptic Display aimed to Improve User VR Immersion Submission

Abstract

© 2019 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Haptic devices have been employed to immerse users in VR environments. In particular, hand and finger haptic devices have been deeply developed. However, this type of devices occludes hand detection for some tracking systems, or, for some other tracking systems, it is uncomfortable for the users to wear two different devices (haptic and tracking device) on both hands. We introduce RecyGlide, a novel wearable multimodal display located at the forearm. The RecyGlide is composed of inverted five-bar linkages with 2 degrees of freedom (DoF) and vibration motors (see Fig. 1.(a). The device provides multimodal tactile feedback such as slippage, force vector, pressure, and vibration. We tested the discrimination ability of monomodal and multimodal stimuli patterns on the forearm and confirmed that the multimodal patterns have higher recognition rate. This haptic device was used in VR applications, and we proved that it enhances VR experience and makes it more interactive.