ViboPneumo: A Vibratory-Pneumatic Finger-Worn Haptic Device for Altering Perceived Texture Roughness in Mixed Reality

TL;DR

ViboPneumo is a finger-worn haptic device that uses vibratory and pneumatic feedback to modulate perceived texture roughness in mixed reality, enhancing user experience and texture perception accuracy.

Contribution

The paper introduces ViboPneumo, a novel haptic device combining vibratory and pneumatic feedback to alter perceived surface roughness in mixed reality environments.

Findings

Participants perceived changes in roughness with ViboPneumo.

The device improved visual-haptic texture matching in MR.

Potential to alter perceived material textures in MR.

Abstract

Extensive research has been done in haptic feedback for texture simulation in virtual reality (VR). However, it is challenging to modify the perceived tactile texture of existing physical objects which usually serve as anchors for virtual objects in mixed reality (MR). In this paper, we present ViboPneumo, a finger-worn haptic device that uses vibratory-pneumatic feedback to modulate (i.e., increase and decrease) the perceived roughness of the material surface contacted by the user's fingerpad while supporting the perceived sensation of other haptic properties (e.g., temperature or stickiness) in MR. Our device includes a silicone-based pneumatic actuator that can lift the user's fingerpad on the physical surface to reduce the contact area for roughness decreasing, and an on-finger vibrator for roughness increasing. Our user-perception experimental results showed that the participants could perceive changes in roughness, both increasing and decreasing, compared to the original material surface. We also observed the overlapping roughness ratings among certain haptic stimuli (i.e., vibrotactile and pneumatic) and the originally perceived roughness of some materials without any haptic feedback. This suggests the potential to alter the perceived texture of one type of material to another in terms of roughness (e.g., modifying the perceived texture of ceramics as glass). Lastly, a user study of MR experience showed that ViboPneumo could significantly improve the MR user experience, particularly for visual-haptic matching, compared to the condition of a bare finger. We also demonstrated a few application scenarios for ViboPneumo.