Wearable Haptics for VR Stiffness Discrimination

In this work, we introduce an integrated multi-finger wearable haptic setup which discriminate the stiffness of virtual objects. The overall setup is made of an Oculus Rift (Oculus VR, LLC) combined with a Leap Motion controller (Leap Motion, Inc) and five ERM vibro-tactile actuators, for the virtual immersion, the hand tracking and the 5-fingers haptic feedback, respectively. This setup is integrated with a Unity Game Engine customised software simulating stiffness of virtual objects and returning modulated amplitude of electrical signals for the vibro-tactile actuators on the end-user fingers. The system is under development for applications such as surgical training and pre-operative planning