"Roomscale VR" experiences, in which you explore a virtual reality (VR) space by actually walking, provide a highly immersive feeling that makes you feel as if you have stepped into that world, so it is expected to be applied in a wide range of fields in recent years. ing. However, major obstacles were the need for a large physical space and the lack of tactile feedback.
A research group at Tohoku University's Institute of Telecommunications has focused on the act of "opening a door" in a VR space, and has developed a unique new system to overcome these constraints and make it possible within a limited physical space. Developed ``RedirectedDoors+''.
"RedirectedDoors+" presents haptic feedback in the experience of walking in a VR space while opening multiple doors in succession, and also tricks the user's direction of movement so that this experience stays within a limited physical space. This is a system that realizes guidance. In this system, we developed a ``door robot'' with a doorknob-shaped device mounted on top of an omnidirectional self-propelled robot in order to provide tactile feedback from the doorknob.
Furthermore, we have newly developed a ``robot placement algorithm'' that adaptively determines the placement of multiple robots, and a ``user steering algorithm'' that guides the user so that the user's walking route fits within the physical space.
The technology that enables realistic VR experiences in a limited physical space is expected to be applied in a variety of fields other than entertainment, such as VR vocational training, VR walk-through experiences such as architecture and urban planning. .
Paper information:[IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics] RedirectedDoors+: Door-Opening Redirection with Dynamic Haptics in Room-Scale VR
