HapTwist: Creating Interactive Haptic Proxies in Virtual Reality Using Low-cost Twistable Artefacts

In this paper, we present a series of studies on using Rubik's Twist, a type of low-cost twistable artefact, to create haptic proxies for various hand-graspable VR objects. Our pilot studies validated the feasibility and effectiveness of Rubik's-Twist-based haptic proxies. The pilot results also revealed user challenges in the physical shape creation, motivating the development of the HapTwist toolkit. The toolkit consists of the shape-generation algorithm, the software interface for shape-construction guidance and interaction authoring, and the hardware modules for constructing interactive haptic proxies. The user studies showed that HapTwist was easy to learn and use, and it significantly improved user performance in creating interactive haptic proxies with Rubik's Twist. Furthermore, HapTwist-generated haptic proxies achieved similar VR experience as the real objects.