Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality with Deformation and Shape-Change

Past Virtual Reality (VR) research shows that haptic feedback increases presence and improves users' task performance. However, providing haptic feedback for multiple virtual objects usually requires complex, immobile systems, or multiple haptic props. We present a new approach that applies deformable, shape-changing devices to VR haptics, leveraging the dominance of human vision in VR to provide realistic haptic feedback with physical shape approximations. Our first study evaluates our HaptoBend prototype through an elicitation study. Results support the use of physical shape approximations and reveal important user preferences. We translate these results and past work into a Design Criteria to inform our second prototype, Adaptic. In our second study, we compare docking performance and adherence to our Design Criteria with Adaptic, a Razor Hydra Controller, and haptic props. We found Adaptic did well in satisfying our Design Criteria and had little difference in performance compared to the other haptic approaches.