Forum Discussion
Haptic: A Potential Solution
Hello, After watching Michael Abrash's OC2 keynote, my mind has been endlessly imagining solutions to these haptic problems both in the short and long term. I wanted to present these ideas in case ...
Those suits are awesome! :) Gosh, once I have the money....
But yeah, that's essentially the basics of it. A suit that tracks your whole body in 3D, and which also gives you soft touch. Apparently that part is already figured out.
Now, to flesh out some of the details of the hard touch concept --- and putting aside the technical hurdles for a moment --- I think the following would be several functional use-cases.
Holding an object
Unlike a wall, which is fixed in some 3D space, an object can be carried around. The way we'd do this is by preventing the fingers from making a fist by exerting anti-force against the fingers only, while leaving the elbow and all other body parts loose.
It would really feel like there's something in your hand and with more advanced algorithms, we could even simulate the level of solidity of the object. For example, a teddy bear would be felt in your hand but still be squishable to a degree. The anti-force would be lenient up to a certain extent before it applied full force against you. This also means the anti-force would have to dynamically adapt its level of force depending on how strongly you pushed first.
Shortcomings: This doesn't account for weight. So picking up a bowling ball will feel as light as picking up a notebook. EDIT: Hang on, we can simulate heavier weight by applying anti-force to the biceps -- pulling them toward the torso or the shoulder. An object can feel really hard to pick up if the shoulder restricts the bicep up to a certain point. I think this should work. OMG.
Gliding your hand across a wall
In this solution for hard touch, we need an adaptive algorithm. This will take some processing power, but we can potentially calculate the varying amounts of anti-force emitted by virtual objects as we dynamically interact with them. For example:
If in VR there's a wall in front of you, then the timing of the moment you feel a counter-force is subject to its placement in 3D as well as where your hand is in 3D. So when touching different areas of a wall your elbow will start to resist you at different levels of its extension depending on what part of the wall you're reaching out to touch.
Kicking a Soccer Ball
If you go kick a soccer ball, then upon the split second that your foot makes contact with the ball, a brief hard-touch force can be applied to your knee joint to simulate the "omph" of the kick. You'll feel the very tactile sensation of the knockback.
(The more I think about this, the more use cases I find.)
But yeah, that's essentially the basics of it. A suit that tracks your whole body in 3D, and which also gives you soft touch. Apparently that part is already figured out.
Now, to flesh out some of the details of the hard touch concept --- and putting aside the technical hurdles for a moment --- I think the following would be several functional use-cases.
Holding an object
Unlike a wall, which is fixed in some 3D space, an object can be carried around. The way we'd do this is by preventing the fingers from making a fist by exerting anti-force against the fingers only, while leaving the elbow and all other body parts loose.
It would really feel like there's something in your hand and with more advanced algorithms, we could even simulate the level of solidity of the object. For example, a teddy bear would be felt in your hand but still be squishable to a degree. The anti-force would be lenient up to a certain extent before it applied full force against you. This also means the anti-force would have to dynamically adapt its level of force depending on how strongly you pushed first.
Shortcomings: This doesn't account for weight. So picking up a bowling ball will feel as light as picking up a notebook. EDIT: Hang on, we can simulate heavier weight by applying anti-force to the biceps -- pulling them toward the torso or the shoulder. An object can feel really hard to pick up if the shoulder restricts the bicep up to a certain point. I think this should work. OMG.
Gliding your hand across a wall
In this solution for hard touch, we need an adaptive algorithm. This will take some processing power, but we can potentially calculate the varying amounts of anti-force emitted by virtual objects as we dynamically interact with them. For example:
If in VR there's a wall in front of you, then the timing of the moment you feel a counter-force is subject to its placement in 3D as well as where your hand is in 3D. So when touching different areas of a wall your elbow will start to resist you at different levels of its extension depending on what part of the wall you're reaching out to touch.
Kicking a Soccer Ball
If you go kick a soccer ball, then upon the split second that your foot makes contact with the ball, a brief hard-touch force can be applied to your knee joint to simulate the "omph" of the kick. You'll feel the very tactile sensation of the knockback.
(The more I think about this, the more use cases I find.)