ZoomWalls

Room-scale virtual reality (VR) experiences allow people to freely walk around a physical space, but we do not yet have effective ways of providing haptic awareness of the enclosure and objects in the space. We propose ZoomWalls, a proof-of-concept prototype of robotic props that move and reposition themselves to provide haptic feedback for represented virtual structures (i.e. walls, doors, and so on). The system predicts which parts of the virtual environment are needed haptically next by position and orientation of the user’s HMD. Following the prediction, the system automatically coordinates the movement of 2 or 3 ZoomWalls to provide just-in-time haptic feedback for walls the user is about to touch.