Drag:on - A Virtual Reality Controller Providing Haptic Feedback Based on Drag and Weight Shift

Exploring virtual worlds with a real Drag:on - we present a novel haptic VR controller based on drag and weight shift

Standard controllers for virtual reality (VR) lack sophisticated means to convey a realistic, kinesthetic impression of size, resistance or inertia. We present the concept and implementation of Drag:on, an ungrounded shape-changing VR controller that provides dynamic passive haptic feedback based on drag, i.e. air resistance, and weight shift. Drag:on leverages the airflow occurring at the controller during interaction. By dynamically adjusting its surface area, the controller changes the drag and rotational inertia felt by the user. In a user study, we found that Drag:on can provide distinguishable levels of haptic feedback. Our prototype increases the haptic realism in VR compared to standard controllers and when rotated or swung improves the perception of virtual resistance. By this, Drag:on provides haptic feedback suitable for rendering different virtual mechanical resistances, virtual gas streams, and virtual objects differing in scale, material and fill state.

We presented the paper about Drag:on at CHI 2019 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK.

Drag:on - A Virtual Reality Controller Providing Haptic Feedback Based on Drag and Weight Shift
André Zenner and Antonio Krüger
Proceedings of the 2019 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '19). ACM 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/3290605.3300441
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