Author Name: Desrina R

Category Name: Science and Technology

By locking the strings when the user's hand is near a virtual wall, for instance, the device simulates the sense of touching the wall. Similarly, the string mechanism enables people to feel the contours of a virtual sculpture, sense resistance when they push on a piece of furniture or even give a high five to a virtual character.

Cathy Fang, who will graduate from CMU next month with a joint degree in mechanical engineering and human-computer interaction, said the shoulder-mounted device takes advantage of spring-loaded strings to reduce weight, consume less battery power and keep costs low.

"Elements such as walls, furniture and virtual characters are key to building immersive virtual worlds, and yet contemporary VR systems do little more than vibrate hand controllers, User evaluation of the multistring device, as reported by co-authors Harrison, Fang, Robotics Institute engineer Matthew Dworman and HCII doctoral student Yang Zhang, found it was more realistic than other haptic techniques.

The team's research paper was named a best paper by the Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI 2020), which was scheduled for this month but canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic

Other researchers have used strings to create haptic feedback in virtual worlds, but typically they use motors to control the strings. Motors wouldn't work for the CMU researchers, who envisioned a system both light enough to be worn by the user and affordable for consumers.

"The downside to motors is they consume a lot of power. Instead of motors, the team used spring-loaded retractors, similar to those seen in key chains or ID badges. They added a ratchet mechanism that can be rapidly locked with an electrically controlled latch. The springs, not motors, keep the strings taut. Only a small amount of electrical power is needed to engage the latch, so the system is energy efficient and can be operated on battery power.

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American journal of computer science and information technology