Virtual social multimedia streaming with a novel haptic device

In the last decade, the technology of multitouch displays has reached a level of maturity that has given new life to virtual reality environments and has introduced in the mass market Graphical User Interfaces previously depicted in SCIFI literature. Three dimensional and stereoscopic displays are moving into mass market and users are getting accustomed to such concepts. This has sparked a new wave of interest in the public and we are now surrounded by several devices that allow the user to experience visuals that were not even thinkable a few years ago. On the other side, devices that allow users to actively interact with the environment are still cumbersome and expensive and not on a par with the evolution of display technologies. In this paper, we introduce a virtual reality application allowing users to stream and share multimedia contents like TV channels, web radio an others. Furthermore we introduce a wireless, light and small vibrotactile haptic device that allows users to interact with the various objects in the virtual scene, increasing the interaction feeling resulting in a more involving experience.