Previously, I have written about using a stunt harness with a VR headset to create a virtual Peter-Pan-esque experience. Looking at the pros and cons has helped me to narrow exactly what kind of experience I am looking to create with this set up. In this post, I am going to discuss how I would like to use haptic and force feedback in the rig. I will also be discussing how these changes the rig would need to achieve this.
Haptic feedback refers to the touch sensation we get as part of interacting with a game or device, such as vibrating controllers or mobile. This kind of vibration feedback is a basic standard for most devices; mobile, game controller etc.. So how could we use this for a VR experience? The HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift both have controllers with haptic feedback, but what about the rest of the body?
During my experience with ‘In the Eyes of the Animal’ VR – (LINK), I had a VR headset as well as a ‘Subpac Backpac’ – (LINK). The ‘Subpac’ is a haptic backpack, that vibrates on your back giving a touch sensation throughout your torso. Considering the back support I would want to incorporate in a VR harness, adding haptics such as this would not be unrealistic. Typically, a haptic vibration is created using a motor within the device. When I start looking at manufacturing a unique harness for VR, I will look into how to give back support and incorporate these motors into the design. In the mean time, getting the initial concept to work is most important, so haptics will have to stay in the controllers for now.
However, by having haptics on your back, you could create the impression of flying with a jet pack or wings by linking the vibrations with the in-game experience. Now wouldn’t that be awesome! 😀
Coming back to the initial concept, I realised that force feedback would be even more important than haptics. This is because in the air, there is nothing to touch/feel other than the G forces pulling you around – (LINK). Pilots experience these forces while they are flying around, so it would be important to consider replicating these sensations for an aerial simulation. Referring back to my first post, Birdly (website – LINK demo – LINK) uses wind haptics to imply that you are moving through the air, rather than replicate g-force. Using wind haptics would work well with my rig if they were appropriately placed, but this would mean fans would have to be placed almost everywhere.
Then I saw this video of a different type of harness, referred to as a ‘twist ring’ – (LINK). In the video, it shows a man in a rig being suspended by two wired with an onmi-directional ‘ring’, that allows him to turn and flip and tumble in the air. This would give the user a lot more freedom when moving around in the air than my previous design (look at post #4 in this series).
Watching the video, I could see that the man had to hold onto the wire at times to help him balance and there was very little control when he would flip and have to self-right himself. Considering this man has more experience than the average person, I would definitely want more control for the user so that they would not be tumbling through the air helplessly.
Looking at my previous design (Post #4), there is very little in the way of balance support for the user. Even with a full body harness for back support, it would not necessarily stop them from getting stuck upside down and keeping balance. I then considered whether it would be possible to include hydraulics or resistance within a ‘twist ring’ to aid the user AND create force feedback.
The idea being that in-game, you might have rockets on your hands (like Ironman), that would stop you from falling on your face. With a VR rig, you cannot have rockets to control your aerial motion in real life – rockets are dangerous. By having a ‘twist ring’ that could move the user, you could create a level of control that would not be possible with the average body strength. Also, by having the rig controlling the real life motion, the game would be able to interact with the user’s motion. This way, the user could better control their movements + balance within the game, without exerting their muscles too much and get force feedback.
In this case, I would need to consult with a mechanics specialist to see whether hydraulics that small would even be up for the task or if there’s another option. If it WERE achievable, it would mean a safer, more comfortable experience for the user, which is exactly what I am aiming for.
I am probably getting ahead of myself in this post, but I had realised that to create more control for the user, I needed to look into the forces exerted during flight and evaluate how to recreate those sensations safely.
What do you think? I would love to hear from you, so be sure to comment in the section down below. All feedback is welcome!
Eleanor Watts 