Design of a Portable Shape Display for Augmented Reality

We introduce a portable pin-based shape display for augmented reality that enables active environment exploration over a large workspace. As users explore the environment, our custom Unity App displays the augmented reality objects and computes the associated shapes to be rendered on the portable 3x3 pin array. We conducted a user study using a non-mechatronic version of the device to evaluate the effects of important design parameters on the perceived realism of interactions with physical objects. Based on these results, we designed the final device and conducted a second user study to determine the effectiveness of the device at conveying shape features. Without visual feedback, participants were successful in identifying the correct shape with 42.86% accuracy, demonstrating the potential of the device to be used to enhance the haptic experience during active exploration. Finally, two preliminary applications are explored to illustrate possible educational use cases for the overall system.