Design and evaluation of a wearable haptic interface for large workspaces

In this work we are evaluating the performance and design of a novel wearable haptic interface suitable for the appliance in large workspaces. We are investigating three main questions regarding the performance of the wearable haptic interface. The first question is whether stable and transparent presentation of contact with rigid surfaces on objects can be simulated with the wearable haptic interface. The second question is whether the performance of the haptic interface degrades when the user is able to walk around in the virtual environment while being tracked by a tracking system and using force feedback to navigate along rigid objects. The third question is whether the deflection of forces to the user´s torso while operating the device disturbs the haptic interaction. In addition we are going to explain the mechanical construction of the wearable haptic interface and the dataflow of the virtual reality framework.