Haptic Rendering of Virtual Stimuli for Fully Immersive Virtual Reality Training Systems

The lack of physical feedback in immersive virtual environments makes it difficult to provide an accurate simulation for training close-quarters battle (CQB) skills. Environments require a soldier to come into contact either directly or indirectly withmany different types of objects and with potential multiple body parts. Sometimes contact could be initiated by someone else. A simulator for CQB training requires the use of scalable, mobile, and deployable haptic feedback.Phase I will be the design and development of a proof of concept full-body, haptic feedback system to determine the feasibility of various techniques we will employ, and measuring goodness through laboratory testing. Phase II will use the outcomes ofPhase I to engineer a product prototype. Phase III will move the Phase II prototype into the product development stage.The specific goals of this system are to determine the feasibility and usefulness of a full-body, haptic feedback system based around the George Washington University developed TactaBoard system. The current TactaBoard system has 16 outputs, isapproximately the size of a palmtop computer, and can be controlled through wireless communications.Our proposed effort can be divided into three main areas of work.1. Extending the TactaBoard system,2. Extending the TactaVest design, and3. Basic and In-Depth Usability Studies The proposed system is applicable to other military applications as well as to the commercial computer gaming and entertainment industries. A modified version of our system, coupled with a GPS system in a vehicle, could be used in a route-followingapplication to alert drivers when it is time to make a turn. In other situations, a GPS transponder could be used to guide a person through a building where verbal communication is not possible and vibrotactile feedback could provide the same informationusing a nonverbal channel. The company believes the potential commercial non-military markets for products using this technology are the medical, aviation, maritime, gaming and entertainment industries, as well as state and local governments