Haptic gloves for AR/VR environments

Intention

 Virtual objects in Augmented and Virtual Reality are becoming more and more real-looking but they still lack the feel of touch. With this project, I aim at developing a haptic feedback at fingertips so that interacting with virtual objects feels more real.  

Process

The first part to decide on the project was to finalize which device to use for haptic feedback such that it could be mobile(mounted on hand along with the power supply) as well as feels natural. After going through multiple things such as piezos, vibration motors as well as a metal plate for passing a tiny current through the finger, I decided to go ahead with vibration motors. Then came the part where I tried different ways of connecting the motors at fingertips.

The first iteration was just to stick the motors at the fingertips using glue to get the right motor position and vibration intensity. it looked like this - 

What I learned from this was that the vibration was being conducted throughout the glove and needed to be localized. Hence, for the second iteration, I tried finger caps 3D printed with flexible material called Ninjaflex which localized the vibrations by inserting motors in slots - 

This worked well but the physical form of it was something users did not find very friendly. Therefore, I decided to stick with a familiar glove interface. The initial iteration of the glove interface had a net pocket made for motor and the connections were made using wire -  

The wires were pretty untidy and hence I decided to use copper fabric for making the connections. I tried 3 methods - stitching the copper on glove, ironing it on the glove and using copper tape for sticking it directly on glove and even tried making the connections on the glove using tape. 

Because the tape forms crease lines and looks untidy, I decided to go ahead with ironing it onto the tape as the final solution. I'll also be removing the breadboard and using a photon without header pins and 2 coin cells as power source to make the circuit more compact and completely mobile. The final version of the glove is still in the making and I'll post it's image as soon as it's done.

Product

The final product is still int he making and it's image will be posted once it's ready

Reflection

The biggest reflection was that no one has really figured out haptics. Few are closer to the result than others but overall, things are still pretty far away. Mobile haptics, even further away. However, the techniques I learned in the soft fabrication class really helped me reach where I reached. Without using copper fabric as connection, conductive thread for wiring and sewing for embedding the motor, the result would have looked much bulkier and untidy than what was achieved.

Sample Book

Following are the images from my sample book -