Intuitive Directional Sense Presentation to the Torso Using McKibben-Based Surface Haptic Sensation in Immersive Space
2026-08-10 • Human-Computer Interaction
Human-Computer InteractionRobotics
AI summaryⓘ
The authors developed a wearable fabric device that uses air pressure to create gentle touches on a large area of the body, helping people feel directions without needing to see anything. This device can guide users better in virtual or mixed-reality spaces by providing intuitive touch signals. They tested their system with people and found it helpful for tasks requiring precise movements, like controlling remote machines. This method could improve how users navigate or interact in immersive environments without relying solely on visuals.
immersive spacehaptic sensationfabric actuatorMcKibben artificial musclewearable devicesurface hapticsair pressure controldirectional guidancemixed realityteleoperation
Authors
Kenta Yokoe, Tadayoshi Aoyama, Yuki Funabora, Masaru Takeuchi, Yasuhisa Hasegawa
Abstract
In recent years, systems that utilize immersive space have been developed in various fields. Immersive spaces often contain considerable amounts of visual information; therefore, users often fail to obtain their desired information. Therefore, various methods have been developed to guide users toward haptic sensations. However, many of these methods have limitations in terms of the intuitive perception of haptic sensation and require practice for familiarization with haptic sensation. Fabric actuators are wearable haptic devices that combine fabric and McKibben artificial muscles to provide wearers with surface haptic sensation. These sensations can be provided to a wide area of the body with intuitive perception, instead of only to a part of the body. This paper presents a novel air pressure adjustment method for whole-body motion guidance using surface haptic sensations provided by a wearable fabric actuator. The proposed system can provide users with a directional sense without visual information in an immersive space. The effectiveness of the proposed system was evaluated through subject experiments and statistical data analysis. Finally, a directional sense presentation was conducted for users performing micromanipulations in a mixed-reality space to demonstrate the applicability of the proposed system for teleoperation.