VR Haptic Controllers
Multi-Purpose Handheld Haptics
Beyond Vibro-Tactors
Hrvoje Benko

Currently @Work conducted @Visuals
Audio

Epic’s Robo Recall

Visuals
Audio

Haptics

Epic’s Robo Recall

VR Controllers – vibrotactile only

Oculus TouchHTC ViveSony PSVR

Two Realities of Haptics in VR Today
Mainstream Use

Research Use

Vibrotactile only, low
encumbrance

High forces, high encumbrance

Actuated Gloves –individual feedback to each finger/low comfort/low resolution

CyberTouch

Delph et al. Soft Exo-Skeletal Arm - 2013

CyberGrasp - 1997

Dexmo Robotics - 2016

Rutgers Master II-ND - 2002

Perez et al. Haptics Symposium 2016

Haptic Robotic Arms –high force/restricted mobility/low resolution

SeansAble Phantom Omni

Novint Falcon

Van der Linde et al. HapticMaster 2002

Araujo et al. SnakeCharmer TEI 2016

Haption Virtuose 6D

UCLA Bionics Lab

Tactile Arrays –higher resolution/stationary/2.5D at best

Summers et al. Exeter
Touch Array. EuroHaptics
2001
Follmer et al. InFORM. UIST 2013

Poupyrev et al. Lumen Siggraph Etech 2004

Kyung et al. Ubi-Pen IEEE CG&A 2009

Why such discrepancy between haptic research andproduct?
None of the research prototypes have demonstrated significant
utility without a significant drawback.
VR Controllers are:• Easy to hold for a variety of people with different hand sizes.
• Easily acquired, dropped, and tracked.
• A platform for additional buttons and joysticks.
• In a tool form factor.

Tools:Familiar objects
Amplify our abilities
Become extensions of our bodyTool-use induces morphological updating of the body schema
L Cardinali, F Frassinetti, C Brozzoli, C Urquizar, et. al. - Current Biology, 2009

An opportunity: VR Haptic Controllers
Extend the tool form factor of VR handheld controllers
with higher fidelity haptics.

What kinds of VR Haptic Controllers
do we need?

5 Ideas for VR Haptic Controllers Toolbox

#1
Ungrounded haptic devices
with force feedback rendering.

Reactive Grip by Tactical Haptics

W.R. Provancher, “Creating Greater VR Immersion by Emulating Force Feedback with
Ungrounded Tactile Feedback,” IQT Quarterly 6(2), 2014, pp. 18-21.

NormalTouch and TextureTouch
3D shape output on the handheld controller form factor

Hrvoje Benko, Christian Holz, Mike Sinclair, and Eyal Ofek. (2016). NormalTouch and TextureTouch: High-fidelity 3D
Haptic Shape Rendering on Handheld Virtual Reality Controllers. In Proc. of ACM UIST 2016.

#2Multi-purpose haptic
devices that adapt to theuser’s context of use.

Goal
One VR Haptic Controller device that
integrates multiple haptic rendering capabilities andadaptively selects which one to use
based on the user’s grip and the environmental context.

CLAW

Choi, I., Ofek, E., Benko, H., Sinclair, M. and Holz, C. CLAW: A Multifunctional Handheld Haptic Controller for Grasping,Touching, and Triggering in Virtual Reality. To appear in Proc. of ACM CHI '18.

#3
User-customizable
haptic devices.

Haptic Revolver

Whitmire, E., Benko, H., Holz, C., Ofek, E. and Sinclair, M. Haptic Revolver: Touch, Shear, Texture, and Shape Rendering
on a Reconfigurable Virtual Reality Controller. To appear in Proc. of ACM CHI '18. Honorable mention.

Haptic Revolver

Whitmire, E., Benko, H., Holz, C., Ofek, E. and Sinclair, M. Haptic Revolver: Touch, Shear, Texture, and Shape Rendering
on a Reconfigurable Virtual Reality Controller. To appear in Proc. of ACM CHI '18. Honorable mention.

#4
Haptic rendering
between devices.

Haptic Links

Strasnick, E., Holz, C., Ofek, E., Sinclair, M. and Benko, H. Haptic Links: Bimanual Haptics for Virtual Reality Using
Variable Stiffness Actuation. To appear in Proc. of ACM CHI ’18.

#5
Reuse existing
objects as haptictools.

Passive Haptics Rocks!

27But, passive haptics approach doesn’t scale!

28

Haptic Retargeting
Azmandian, M., Hancock, M., Benko, H., Ofek, E., and Wilson, A. Haptic
Retargeting: Dynamic Repurposing of Passive Haptics for Enhanced Virtual
Reality Experiences. In Proc. of ACM CHI 2016.

293031

Body Warping

physicalcube

virtualcube

The Rendered Body
Shifts to The Right

32

World Warping
physicalcube

30°
virtualcube

The World Also Rotates(At Different Rate)
90°

33

Putting it all together…

34

Haptic retargeting allows physical props to be reused for haptics byleveraging the dominance of vision to retarget people's hand motions.
A single prop can be repurposed to allow movement and stacking of a virtual
space with a multitude of virtual objects.

5 Ideas for VR Haptic Controller Toolbox
1. Provide force feedback rendering on ungrounded devices.
2. Design multi-purpose haptic devices that adapt to the context ofuse.
3. Design user-customizable haptic controllers.
4. Don’t ignore haptics between devices.
5. Enable reuse of existing objects as haptic tools.

Thanks to my collaborators
Andy Wilson (MSR)
Christian Holz (MSR)
Mike Sinclair (MSR)
Eyal Ofek (MSR)

Eric Whitmire (U. Washington)
Mahdi Azmandian (USC)
Evan Strasnick (Stanford)
Inrak Choi (Stanford)
Mark Hancock (U. Waterloo)

Hrvoje Benko
hrvoje.benko@oculus.com
http://www.hrvojebenko.com