Abstract:

In this paper an integrated system for the creation of a combined audio and tactile display is described. In order to get an illusion of physically being among virtual sounding objects, we used vibration motors attached to a belt to give tactile stimulus, and sensed the user's position and orientation with a 3D tracker. Collisions with free-to-move virtual objects is provided through semi-realistic vibration on the correct collision point with respect to the position and orientation of the user. The tactile vibration is encoded on 8 vibrotactile motors using a calculation of the gains on the motors similar to a panning law and improved to convey the perceptual illusion of proximity of the object and collision with it. We combine the tactile stimulus with a spatialization system augmented with distance cues.