The current disclosure relates to input devices for use in a virtual reality environment and in particular to passive haptic feedback input devices.
Passive haptic feedback uses physical objects or props to represent virtual object in a virtual environment. Passive haptic feedback may increase a user's immersion or sense of presence in a virtual environment as well as improve the user's task performance. However, providing passive haptic feedback for different objects in a virtual environment requires multiple different props.
While high cost systems, such as robotic force feedback systems may provide a wide range of haptic feedback for different objects in a virtual environment, their high costs and complexity make them limited in their application.
Features, aspects and advantages of the present disclosure will become better understood with regard to the following description and accompanying drawings in which:
In accordance with the present disclosure there is provided a passive haptic feedback device comprising: a plurality of planar panels; a plurality of hinges each hinge connecting adjacent planar panels together; a plurality of hinge configuration sensors, each hinge configuration sensor associated with a respective one of the plurality of hinges.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, each hinge configuration sensor outputs a signal indicative of a rotational position of the associated hinge.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, one or more of the plurality of hinge configuration sensors comprises one or more of: a rotary potentiometer; a rotary magnetic hall sensor; a rotary encoder; and a rotary inductive position sensor.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, one or more of the plurality of planar panels comprises: a controller receiving rotational position signals from the plurality of hinge configuration sensors.
In accordance with a further embodiment, the passive haptic feedback device further comprises a communication radio for communicating configuration information indicative of the rotational position of the plurality of hinges with a remote computer device.
In accordance with a further embodiment, the passive haptic feedback device further comprises a plurality of rotational actuators each associated with a respective one of the plurality of hinges.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, each of the rotational actuators are controllable to rotate the associated hinge.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, each of the hinge configuration sensors comprise an actuator controllable to rotate the associated hinge and output the signal indicative of the rotational position of the associated hinge.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, one or more of the plurality of planar panels further comprise one or more positional sensors for sensing a position or orientation of the passive haptic feedback device.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the passive haptic feedback device, the one or more positional sensors comprises one or more of: an accelerometer; a gyroscopic sensor; and a location sensor.
The passive haptic feedback device described herein provides a low cost device that can be used to provide passive haptic feedback for a variety of different objects or shapes in a virtual environment. The device provides physical approximations of different virtual objects and can provide realistic feedback to a user handling or interacting with an object in a virtual object. It is believed that human vision is the dominant sense for perceiving an environment and as such a physical representation of a virtual object seen by a user in a virtual environment does not need to be a highly realistic representation in order to provide useful haptic feedback to the user.
The computer device 102 may comprise a central processing unit (CPU) 106 for executing instructions that configure the computer device 102 to provide various functionality, including for example providing the virtual environment. The computer device 102 may further comprise a memory unit 108 for storing data and instructions that can be executed by the CPU 106. The computer device 102 may further include an input/output (I/O) interface 110 that can be used to interface various components and devices to the computer device 102. The computer device 102 may further include non-volatile storage 112 for storing data as well as instructions.
The instructions stored in the memory 108 when executed by a processor such as CPU 106 can configure the device such as computer device 102 to provide various functionality 114. The functionality 114 may include configuration functionality 116 for determining the physical configuration of the passive haptic feedback device 104 as well location/orientation functionality 118 for providing information on the orientation and location of the passive haptic feedback device 104. Although both the configuration functionality 116 and the location/orientation functionality 118 are depicted as being provided by the computer device 102, it is possible for either one or both to be provided by a processor of the passive haptic feedback device 104.
The configuration functionality 116 receives individual configuration position information from the sensors associated with the hinges (120). Using the received position information, the configuration of the individual hinges can be determined and so the physical configuration of the passive haptic feedback device can also be determined (122). Once the physical configuration is determined, it can be provided to a virtual environment (124) in order to act as a physical representation of a virtual object. The location/orientation functionality 118 receives orientation/location sensor data (126) from one or more sensors capable of providing orientation and/or location information of the passive haptic feedback device. The received orientation and/or location information can be provided to the virtual environment (128) so that a user's interactions with the passive haptic feedback device representing the virtual object will be reflected in the virtual environment.
The passive haptic feedback device 200 further comprises a plurality of configuration position sensors 206a, 206b, 206c (referred to collectively as configuration position sensors 206) that are each associated with a respective one of the hinges 204. The configuration position sensors may be provided by various rotational sensing sensors including for example a rotary potentiometer, a rotary magnetic hall sensor, a rotary encoder, and a rotary inductive position sensor. Regardless of the particular type of sensor, each of the configuration position sensors provides information about a configuration of a portion of the passive haptic feedback device. From the configuration position sensor data the configuration angles between planar panels 202 can be determined. Since the physical size of each of the planar panels is known, once the configuration angles are known the configuration of the passive haptic feedback device 200 will also be known.
The passive haptic feedback device 200 may also comprise a number of additional components including, for example, one or more accelerometer sensors 208, rotational sensors 210 such as gyroscopic sensors as well as location sensors 212 which may provide information about the spatial location of the passive haptic feedback device 200. The passive haptic feedback device 200 may further include a controller 214 that can execute instructions for providing various functionality, including for example the configuration functionality 116 and the location/orientation functionality 118 described above with reference to
One or more illustrative embodiments have been described by way of example. It will be understood to persons skilled in the art that a number of variations and modifications can be made without departing from the scope of the invention as defined in the claims.
The current application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application 62/746,238 filed Oct. 16, 2018, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety for all purposes.
Number | Date | Country | |
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62746238 | Oct 2018 | US |