Encounter-Type Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Reality Musical Instruments

This paper summarizes the author's interest in haptic interfaces for Virtual Reality Musical Instruments. The current research focuses on finding interfaces that can improve physical interaction and presence with such instruments. Musical expression is a topic rarely addressed in the field of Virtual Reality. During the years, the author has explored different systems and concepts while finding the thesis topic for the Ph.D. research. They include the development and evaluation of deformable input surfaces and Shape-Changing interfaces. The results from these implementations led us to investigate Encounter-type haptics, a method that has never received a proper consideration in the design of virtual musical instruments. This represents the current stage of our research. However, the exact direction towards the Ph.D. thesis topic is still in search. Through this paper, we will describe the background and motivations behind this research together with the research hypothesis developed until now.