ElasticVR: Providing Multilevel Continuously-Changing Resistive Force and Instant Impact Using Elasticity for VR

Resistive force (e.g., due to object elasticity) and impact (e.g., due to recoil) are common effects in our daily life. However, resistive force continuously changes due to users' movements while impact instantly occurs when an event triggers it. These feedback are still not realistically provided by current VR haptic methods. In this paper, a wearable device, ElasticVR, which consists of an elastic band, servo motors and mechanical brakes, is proposed to provide the continuously-changing resistive force and instantly-occurring impact upon the user's hand to enhance VR realism. By changing two physical properties, length and extension distance, of the elastic band, ElasticVR provides multilevel resistive force with no delay and impact with little delay, respectively, for realistic and versatile VR applications. A force perception study was performed to observe users' force distinguishability of the resistive force and impact, and the prototype was built based on its results. A VR experience study further proves that the resistive force and impact from ElasticVR both outperform those from current approaches in realism. Applications using ElasticVR are also demonstrated.