This wild haptic system can be used to build vehicles

As virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) slowly grow in adoption, their shortcomings become more obvious. Most glaringly, they only engage users’ sense of sight and hearing. Haptic tactile feedback is almost non-existent and so picking up a “sword” in VR feels like picking up a VR controller, because that’s what you’re actually doing. Many solutions have been presented for situations like that, with limited success. But larger scale haptic feedback has largely been ignored until now, with the presentation of a wild new modular haptic system that can be used to build entire vehicles.

Mod2Hap is like an oversized LEGO set that VR and MR users can assemble into a variety of different configurations that suit the virtual scenario they’re in. If, for example, the user is playing a VR motorcycle racing sim, they can assemble the Mod2Hap modules into a vaguely motorcycle-like shape, sit on that, and start riding. Later, when rowing a canoe down a virtual river, they can reassemble the modules into a seat with two oars. 

The current Mod2Hap prototype has four types of module blocks: a rotary haptic block, a linear haptic block, an empty spacer block, and a larger central frame block. Each haptic block contains an Arduino Nano Every board and motors provide rotary actuation, but there is also a provision for torque coupling via magnetorheological fluid. Magnetic fields affect the viscosity of that fluid, so Mod2Hap can adjust resistance on-demand. In the case of the linear block, the resistance is through a piston. The resistance could, for instance, make those virtual oars harder to move when the user encounters a strong river current.

This is an unusual prototype and Mod2Hap is unlikely to see any kind of commercial release, but it is intriguing and we’ll need this kind of imaginative thinking to progress the VR and MR industry.