This project involves an innovation that supports full upper-body representation in Virtual Reality systems.
Virtual Reality (VR) in its current form lacks products for upper body haptic feedback and tracking. The need for haptic feedback when contacting virtual objects and environments is recognized as an unmet void. This project's "NullSpace" VR system is a full upper body haptic feedback suit for virtual reality, using a built-in tracking system and programmable vibrating pads placed on muscle groups around the body and on the hands and fingers. When a user enters a VR experience, the tracking system accurately maps motions into the virtual space; then, as the user interacts with virtual objects and obstacles, the vibrating pads activate to provide a sense of touch.
NullSpace is appropriate for users of both Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) in simulation and gaming scenarios including researchers and medical professionals seeking ways to make PTSD Immersion Therapy and phobia treatment more effective, or projects requiring accurate simulation for training purposes, such as astronaut task training, flight simulation, and medical procedure training. Another potential user population of the NullSpace system are gamers who are interested in interactive virtual reality and desire additional control and feedback capability in their virtual experiences. Virtual reality games using standard headset hardware cannot track the arms and body and represent them as a player avatar, creating a disorienting visual effect of being limbless and incorporeal while in the virtual space.
A prototype of the haptic system has been developed, and has been demonstrated to users at private display events, but the suit will require significant user need finding and testing to focus on the commercialization space. For the duration of the I-Corps program, the team plans to focus on need finding through market-oriented interviews.
