Haptic retargeting enables convincing touch control in the virtual world

Shawn Knight

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One of the many keys to making virtual reality believable is being able to bring the sense of touch into the virtual world. Adding additional senses into the mix is a trick that’s been used by consumer electronics makers for years but in the virtual world, how exactly do you go about that?

Using a prop like a gun controller would work in shooters but what about titles that require the manipulation of multiple items? You can’t just load your desk up with all sorts of objects; aside from the clutter, it’d put serious strain on your computer just to track everything.

Researchers from Microsoft, USC, and the University of Waterloo have developed a couple of clever techniques – body warping and world warping – that essentially trick your brain into believing a single object is actually multiple objects or that they're in a different location. The two illusions, both of which require help from a Kinect camera, can be combined to create what’s called hybrid warping.

It sounds a bit complicated but the video above does a great job of explaining what’s happening.

These techniques could really make playing a game like Minecraft in virtual reality far more immersive although I’m not sure how they would translate to other games or experiences.

Microsoft plans to publish a paper on the matter – Haptic Retargeting: Dynamic Repurposing of Passive Haptics for Enhanced Virtual Reality Experiences – at the CHI 2016 conference that runs from May 7 through the 12th in San Jose.

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Pretty neat... now grab one of the cubes with each hand!

Seriously though it is cool, very limited applications though.
 
THis will be great when doling out the allowance to the kids ..... I/ll save 2/3rds right off the bat!
 
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