Elastic-Arm: Human-Scale Passive Haptic Feedback for Augmenting Interaction and Perception in Virtual Environments

Figure 1: The Elastic-Arm is a body-mounted armature that provides egocentric passive haptic feedback. It presents an alternative to more complex active haptic devices that are generally less adapted to large immersive environments. In this example, a user performs a selection task by stretching his virtual arm using a combination of the Bubble and Go-Go techniques reimplemented with our system. Haptic feedback is known to improve 3D interaction in virtual envi-ronments but current haptic interfaces remain complex and tailored to desktop interaction. In this paper, we introduce the “Elastic-Arm”, a novel approach for incorporating haptic feedback in im-mersive virtual environments in a simple and cost-effective way. The Elastic-Arm is based on a body-mounted elastic armature that links the user’s hand to her shoulder. As a result, a progressive resis-tance force is perceived when extending the arm. This haptic feed-back can be incorporated with various 3D interaction techniques and we illustrate the possibilities offered by our system through several use cases based on well-known examples such as the Bub-ble technique, Redirected Touching and pseudo-haptics. These il-lustrative use cases provide users with haptic feedback during se-lection and navigation tasks but they also enhance their perception of the virtual environment. Taken together, these examples suggest that the Elastic-Arm can be transposed in numerous applications and with various 3D interaction metaphors in which a mobile hap-tic feedback can be beneficial. It could also pave the way for the design of new interaction techniques based on “human-scale ” ego-centric haptic feedback