Non-grounded Haptic Display by Controlling Wind Direction

作者：Kuroda Yoshihiro^*; Seki Kazuteru; Kiyokawa Kiyoshi; Takemura Haruo

来源：IEEJ Transactions on Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 2017, 12(3): 404-411.

DOI：10.1002/tee.22391

• haptic display
• non-grounded device
• wind direction
• navigation

In recent years, a non-grounded haptic display that is unconstrained from the ground and the human body has been studied intensively. Route navigation for the visually impaired and escape during an emergency have been considered as applications of such devices because the device should be free in space. However, it is difficult to display the actual force other than a pseudo force because the reaction force received by a user should be supported elsewhere. A wind blower is a possible solution that can display the actual force in midair because the air reacts with the wind pressure without grounding. Here, we propose a non-grounded haptic display that uses wind pressure. The display changes the force directions because the device should generate translational and rotational forces to navigate forward and change directions. The device should also display the force independent of the device posture. The designed device has two fans, each of which is mounted on two-axis gimbals at the end of the grip. The device can display translational and rotational forces by orienting the two fans to the same and opposite directions, respectively. We developed a prototype device and conducted a human subject study to investigate the performance of the device in terms of direction discrimination and completion time with different directions and force patterns. The results showed that both translational and rotational forces could be displayed and that rotational forces were perceived more clearly.

• 出版日期2017-5