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Wearable vibrotactile systems for virtual contact and information display

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Abstract

This paper presents a development history of a wearable, scalable vibrotactile stimulus delivery system. This history has followed a path from desktop-based, fully wired systems, through hybrid approaches consisting of a wireless connection from the host computer to a body-worn control box and wires to each tactor, to a completely wireless system employing Bluetooth technology to connect directly from the host to each individual tactor unit. Applications for such a system include delivering vibrotactile contact cues to users of virtual environments, providing directional cues in order to increase situational awareness in both real and virtual environments, and for general information display in wearable contexts. Through empirical study, we show that even a simple configuration, such as eight tactors arrayed around the torso, can be effective in increasing situational awareness in a building-clearing task, compared to users who perform the same task without the added cues.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the National Institute of Information and Communications Technology in Japan.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Computer Science, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, 100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA, 01609-2280, USA

    Robert W. Lindeman

  2. Department of Information Engineering, Faculty of Science & Technology, Meijo University, 1-501 Shiogamaguchi, 468-8502, Nagoya, Tempaku-ku, Japan

    Yasuyuki Yanagida

  3. ATR International, Media Information Science Labs, 2-2-2 Hikari-dai, Seika-cho, Souraku-gun, 619-0288, Kyoto, Japan

    Haruo Noma

  4. ATR International, Media Information Science Labs, Intelligent Robotic Communications Labs, 2-2-2 Hikari-dai, Seika-cho, Souraku-gun, 619-0288, Kyoto, Japan

    Kenichi Hosaka

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  1. Robert W. Lindeman
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  2. Yasuyuki Yanagida
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  3. Haruo Noma
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  4. Kenichi Hosaka
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Correspondence to Robert W. Lindeman.

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Lindeman, R.W., Yanagida, Y., Noma, H. et al. Wearable vibrotactile systems for virtual contact and information display. Virtual Reality 9, 203–213 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-005-0010-6

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10055-005-0010-6

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