ElastImpact Lets You Feel VR Blows to the Head

Virtual reality (VR) interactions are most importantly represented audiovisually. Haptic feedback, however, normally produced by some sort of vibrating motor, can also be quite important for immersion, allowing users to literally feel what they are doing. While vibratory feedback is useful (and widely applied in other applications, from phones to traditional screen-based gaming — Goldeneye anyone?), this still doesn’t really simulate sudden impacts in a realistic way.

To enable users to feel impacts directly to the face, researchers Hsin-RueyTsai and Bing-YuChen at the National Taiwan University have developed ElastImpact — 2.5D instant impact on a head-mounted display (HMD) for realistic and versatile VR experiences.

As outlined in the project’s research paper, the haptic impact system attaches directly to the HMD, and instead of spinning an offset weight, uses 1000:1 gearmotors to tighten rubber bands, mechanically charging the system. When a blow is felt, perhaps via a boxing simulation as demonstrated in the video below, the rubber bands release their stored energy to transfer a quick impact to the face.

ElastImpact employs a pair of motor/rubber bands arranged near the headset’s strap in order to exhibit impacts normal (into) the face, while a third impact driver setup rotates to exhibit side impacts. Motor control is taken care of here via an Arduino Mega with two dual TB6612FNG motor drivers.