1. Combining Passive Haptics with Redirected Walking Luv Kohli Final Project COMP239 – Virtual Worlds May 25, 2005

2. Problem 1 Notable lack of touch feedback (haptics) in VR Interaction without haptics is difficult

3. Solutions Passive haptics Active haptics Avatar redirection

4. Solutions Passive haptics Active haptics Avatar redirection

5. Problem 2 Size of virtual world limited by size of physical tracker space

6. Solutions Flying Treadmills Virtual walkways/escalators Redirected walking Lots of others

7. Solutions Flying Treadmills Virtual walkways/escalators Redirected walking Lots of others

8. Redirected Walking + Passive Haptics… The idea of using passive haptics with redirected walking seemingly goes out the window Real Virtual Physical prop

9. …with our powers combined… With careful environment design, is it possible to incorporate passive haptics into a virtual environment that uses redirected walking?

10. Some thoughts Redirected walking not possible if within arm’s reach of physical prop Physical prop Region where user is within arm’s reach of prop

11. More thoughts Much less area available for redirecting the user Virtual objects must align with physical objects by the time the user reaches them

12. Environments to Ponder RealVirtual

13. Environments to Ponder RealVirtual

14. Environments to Ponder RealVirtual Ideal rotation point

15. Simplifying assumption Physical prop is rotationally symmetric Allows user to approach from any direction

16. Distance issue still remains r r d v r Real Virtual

17. d gets you everything else Choose d such that amount of redirection is minimized Can be tough to solve analytically, but might be easy numerically

18. Take a step back Find line that is equidistant from real and virtual object Select a point along that line to guide the user to (e.g. point closest to user)

19. Redirection When user is at point of rotation, force them to turn by using a distractor (as in Dorian Miller’s COMP239 project in Fall 2002) Repeat as necessary (show Matlab)

20. Thieves! Evil flying robots have stolen several precious gems

21. Well… Okay, so they’re actually spheres.

22. Your goal Vanquish the evil flaming spheres and collect the gems for safekeeping

23. Teleporters The spheres come in through teleporters When a teleporter appears (and makes a sound), you must enter its beam to engage a sphere – it will appear in front of you

24. Hitting the spheres When your hand/raygun intersects a sphere, the sphere’s force field is weakened

25. Gems Hitting the spheres enough times will cause them to fade away Afterwards, a gem will be placed on one of five colored pedestals in the environment Pick up the gem by moving your hand onto it

26. The trick Spheres rotate around you while you try to vanquish them This forces the user to turn, and allows the system to redirect (show log playback)

27. Lessons learned It works for a contrived case – can it be generalized at all? A fair amount of error is tolerable Need a good way to plan user routes

28. Future work Make the system more robust Do some redirection while user is walking Explore using a small amount of translation to correct error

29. Acknowledgements Thank you to Eric Burns, Henry Fuchs, Dorian Miller, and Sharif Razzaque for brainstorming ideas and spending a great deal of time discussing this project with me.