Haptic Perception Research and Facility Design for Virtual Spaces

The goal of this study is to develop a smart device that can be used to enhance virtual space perception to improve the haptic perception experience of the user’s space in virtual training, entertainment, and other scenarios. Haptic feedback is one of the key elements to enhance the experience of virtual space perception. At present, virtual reality technology has been able to accomplish a considerable degree of ultra visual virtual field experience, such as simulating terrain, constructing haptic proxies with airbags to refine the virtual scene, but lack of research on longitudinal spatial haptics, passive opening of fixed haptic devices cannot meet the sensory needs of switching between different virtual spaces. In this study, the introduction of props of haptic proxies in the virtual space helps to enhance the virtual sensory experience of users. Through experiments and preliminary validation of user perception indicators, four design strategies for haptic proxies props in purely visual virtual contexts are proposed. Based on the design strategies, this paper designs an intelligent device for constructing an immersive virtual reality system, which assists users to interactively surrogate vision through haptic perception in virtual reality, and to more realistically feel the obstruction experience and spatial sense in virtual space. The device is installed on both sides of the experience space by two groups of forty 50 cm × 40 cm rectangular panels in total to meet the need for different sizes of obstructions in different scenarios, where each rectangular block can be actuated up to five depth levels (one depth actuation level for every 10 cm). Each panel is driven by a motorized actuator and moves the panel to the target displacement. The motors are powered by a power supply, driven by a motor driver, and controlled by an Arduino Uno that receives commands via serial communication from a host PC running a custom Unity application written in c#. The facilities and methods of this research have a wide range of application scenarios, which can provide a more realistic sense of experience for the design and development of virtual systems for spatial training classes with strict requirements for spatial perception; optimize the display effect and evaluation of virtual display of indoor decoration and home furnishing options; Enhance the spatial experience of virtual gaming categories, providing multi-dimensional haptic stimulation for immersive games such as virtual escape rooms. Provide multidimensional haptic and sensory stimulation. Future research can use the developed smart devices to further optimize the sensory feedback of visual-haptic synchronization in virtual space.