Mid-air Haptic Texture Exploration in VR

Mid-air haptic feedback technology has traditionally been used to enhance gesture input interactions such as pressing a holographic button, swiping through a menu, or when grasping a virtual object. Here we present a VR research demo that expands such interactions to include for active haptic exploration. In the demo, the user can explore a virtual object using both hands and feel its intrinsic properties such as consistency and texture. The paper describes the physical apparatus used and its reasoning, the haptic rendering techniques leveraged, the research questions we plan to explore, and its relevance to applications such as VR shopping.