TapeTouch: A Handheld Shape-changing Device for Haptic Display of Soft Objects

Haptic feedback is widely used to enhance realism in virtual reality (VR). Shape and softness are two common factors perceived by the users in the haptic rendering of soft objects. To integrate these factors, we propose a new handheld shape-changing device, TapeTouch, to provide various shapes and softness in real time. TapeTouch is based on a controllable shape-changing tape, which is mainly composed of four motors and a section of brass tape. We design a structure of the components to fit a portable controller and allow to flexibly adjust the shape of the brass tape. After decoding desired shapes into the signals to control the motor, we automatically reproduce varying shapes and levels of softness to the finger or palm touching the shape-changing tape. We conducted two user studies to understand the capability of TapeTouch to render shape and softness, and the results showed that TapeTouch could provide a variety of distinguishable shapes as well as multiple levels of softness. Based on the results, we performed two VR experience studies to verify that the haptic feedback from TapeTouch enhances VR realism.