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Improved Direction Signalization Technique Employing Vibrotactile Feedback

Tom Vierjahn, Björn Wöldecke, Christian Geiger, Jens Herder

In Proceedings: 11th Virtual Reality International Conference 2009

In virtual studio productions, the actors have to maneuver through a virtual set without colliding with the invisible, virtual objects.

Custom built tactors, made from small vibration motors that were mounted inside XLR audio connectors.

The Arduino BT controller board (center) and five custom built tactors.

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Abstract

Vibrotactile feedback via body-worn vibrating belts is a common means of direction signalization -- e.g. for navigational tasks. Consequently such feedback devices are used to guide blind or visually impaired people but can also be used to support other wayfinding tasks -- for instance, guiding actors in virtual studio productions. Recent effort has been made to simplify this task by integrating vibrotactile feedback into virtual studio applications.

In this work we evaluate the accuracy of an improved direction signalization technique, utilizing a body-worn vibrotactile belt with a limited number of tactors, and compare it to other work. The results from our user study indicate that it is possible to signalize different directions accurately, even with a small number of tactors spaced by 90°.

@inproceedings{VIERJAHN-2009-01,
  author    = {Vierjahn, Tom and 
               W{\"o}ldecke, Bj{\"o}rn and 
               Geiger, Christian and 
               Herder, Jens},
  title     = {{Improved Direction Signalization Technique Employing Vibrotactile Feedback}},
  booktitle = {11th Virtual Reality Int'l Conf},
  editor    = {Richir, Simon and 
               Shirai, Akihiko},
  series    = {VRIC',09},
  pages     = {255--262},
  year      = {2009},
  isbn      = {2-9515730-8-1},
}