Feelium: A Touchable Blimp Body for Aerial Telepresence
Human-Computer InteractionRobotics
Summary
The authors created Feelium, a blimp-like device that lets a person use virtual reality to control it remotely and see through its perspective. The blimp has a soft, inflatable skin that detects when someone nearby touches or presses it. These touch actions appear to the remote user inside the VR headset, letting both remote and nearby people interact with each other physically. This setup creates a shared touch experience even though the user is far away.
Authors
George Xi Wang, Henghao Li, Shan Lin, Yunge Wen, Jiaqian Hu, Yuhua Jin
Abstract
Floating things invite touch. We present Feelium, a blimp-based telepresence platform that enables visual embodiment and touch interaction through its inflatable skin. Through a VR headset, a remote person inhabits the blimp, looking out of it first-person, appearing on its skin as a face or avatar, and steering it through the room. Partners in the room pat it, press a palm against it, draw on it, or lean into it; the skin senses each contact, renders it into the wearer's view in VR spaces. Touch thus provides a physical interaction channel for remote presence, turning the skin into a shared surface between remote and co-located partners.