Interaction Design x Research
Designing Thermal Experiences for VR
Wearables, Thermal, VR
Haptic interfaces have been increasingly researched in the VR field. More and more companies release haptic gloves or suits that incorporate haptic feedback to stimulate the sense of touch. They make us feel the objects and scenes were are interacting with through vibrotactile or force feedback. However, thermal interfaces for VR are still under-researched.
But what if we could feel temperatures in VR? Imagine for instance VR fire-fighter training with the addition of heat feedback. Would that make the experience more realistic and more effective?
As part of the EU-funded project European Media and Immersion Lab (www.emil-xr.eu) we developed a wearable thermo-haptic interface that produces heat and cold with Peltier Elements and vibration feedback which can be coupled with game engines such as Unreal Engine. The system is modular and can be attached/de-attached from a washable under-garment and fits different body sizes. Through spatio-temporal control of the thermal and vibration modules dynamic feedback patterns can be designed that reproduce the sensation of traveling steam or a cold shower.
As the project was produced in Finland, we tested the system in a show-case experience of a traditional Finnish sauna experience that includes dynamic hot steam and cold shower.
The hardware design and code API is publicly available and re-usable under creative commons licensing here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jct_e0X0guGrw110XR_5dnaJEJwBXdSv/view
https://version.aalto.fi/gitlab/vikbere2/wearable-device-api
For demos please reach out to me via tim.moesgen@aalto.fi
But what if we could feel temperatures in VR? Imagine for instance VR fire-fighter training with the addition of heat feedback. Would that make the experience more realistic and more effective?
As part of the EU-funded project European Media and Immersion Lab (www.emil-xr.eu) we developed a wearable thermo-haptic interface that produces heat and cold with Peltier Elements and vibration feedback which can be coupled with game engines such as Unreal Engine. The system is modular and can be attached/de-attached from a washable under-garment and fits different body sizes. Through spatio-temporal control of the thermal and vibration modules dynamic feedback patterns can be designed that reproduce the sensation of traveling steam or a cold shower.
As the project was produced in Finland, we tested the system in a show-case experience of a traditional Finnish sauna experience that includes dynamic hot steam and cold shower.
The hardware design and code API is publicly available and re-usable under creative commons licensing here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jct_e0X0guGrw110XR_5dnaJEJwBXdSv/view
https://version.aalto.fi/gitlab/vikbere2/wearable-device-api
For demos please reach out to me via tim.moesgen@aalto.fi