TacTiles: Electromagnetic Actuators for Rendering Haptics in VR

Title: TacTiles: Electromagnetic Actuators for Rendering Haptics in VR

Teams: AIT Lab

Writers: Velko Vechev, Juan Zarate, David Lindlbauer, Ronan Hinchet, Herbert Shea, Otmar Hilliges

Publication date: March 2019

Abstract

We introduce TacTiles, light (1.8g), low-power (130 mW ), and small form-factor (1cm3) electromagnetic actuators that can form a flex- ible haptic array to provide localized tactile feedback. Our novel hardware design uses a custom 8-layer PCB, dampening materials, and asymmetric latching, enabling two distinct modes of actuation: contact and pulse mode. We leverage these modes in Virtual Reality (VR) to render continuous contact with objects and the exploration of object surfaces and volumes with spatial haptic patterns. Results from a series of experiments show that users are able to localize feedback, discriminate between modes with high accuracy, and dif- ferentiate objects from haptic surfaces and volumes even without looking at them.