Preliminary Experiment Combining Virtual Reality Haptic Shoes and Audio Synthesis

Abstract

Abstract. We describe a system that can provide combined auditory and haptic sensations that arise while walking on different grounds. The simulation is based on a physical model that drives both haptic transducers embedded in sandals and headphones. The model is able to represent walking interactions with solid surfaces that can creak, be covered with crumpling material. The simulation responds to pressure on the floor by a vibrotactile signal felt by the feet. In a preliminary discrimination experiment, 15 participants were asked to recognize four different surfaces in a list of sixteen possibilities and under three different conditions, haptics only, audition only and combined haptic-audition. The results indicate that subjects are able to recognize most of the stimuli in the audition only condition, and some of the material properties such as hardness in the haptics only condition. The combination of auditory and haptic cues does not significantly improve recognition.

Event-based haptic vibration synthesis using a recursive filter for lower limb prosthetics

“…These interactions may include impacts, friction or fractures events. Turchet et al presented such an approach based on Hunt-Crossley interaction [4] in conjunction with a pair of augmented sandals, and demonstrated that users are able to recognize most of the simulated material types [17]. Another physical model approach uses acceleration data, measured during walking on fragile structures such as aluminum foil and paper, to design a spectrum-based synthesis model [18].…”

Vibrotactile Rendering of Splashing Fluids

“…The signals are displayed through custom shoes equipped with loudspeakers and haptic actuators. Nordahl et al [5] developed a similar approach with rigid, friction and aggregate models. They conducted a material recognition experiment, showing that some material properties could be conveyed through haptic rendering alone.…”

“…In this context, several researchers have recently demonstrated encouraging results by modeling and rendering different materials through highfrequency vibrations. For example, several solid materials can be perceived through measurement-based approaches [1]- [4], while physically based approaches have been used for simulating both solids such as wood and metal [5] and aggregates such as gravel and snow [6]. Display can be achieved by the wide availability of offthe-shelf and easily built vibrotactile hardware (actuated floors [7], shoes [8], and hand-held transducers [9]) supporting bodily interaction with virtual materials.…”

“…Similar to other rendering approaches for virtual materials [5], [6], [10], we leverage the fact that vibrotactile and acoustic phenomena share a common physical source. Hence, we base the design of our vibrotactile model on prior knowledge of fluid sound rendering, as vibrational effects are very likely induced by the same phenomenon in nature.…”

Audio-Haptic Simulation of Walking on Virtual Ground Surfaces to Enhance Realism

“…The company Nike has also developed an accelerometer which can be attached to running shoes and connected to an iPod, in such a way that, when a person runs, the iPod tracks and reports different information. Shoes enhanced with sensors and actuators were presented in [6], and an experiment was run in order to evaluate ability of subjects to recognize the virtual simulated surfaces driven by such shoes. Results showed that subjects were able to recognize simulated surfaces when rendered both using auditory and haptic at feet level.…”