Researchers develop VR headset with mouth haptics

The metaverse is coming and companies are trying to make it realistic. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a way to mimic sensations around the mouth.

The Future Interfaces Group at CMU created a device. The frequencies produced by the grid of transducers are too high for humans to hear. Pressure sensations can be created on the skin if the frequencies are focused enough.

The mouth was chosen as a test bed because of how sensitive the nerves are. The team of researchers created pressure sensations. The combinations were added to the basic library of commands.

One of the authors of the paper explained that it is easier to do taps and vibrations by changing the timing and frequencies.

The team tested the device on a small group of people. The volunteers wore virtual reality goggles and went through a series of virtual worlds, including a haunted forest and a racing game.

The volunteers were able to interact with various objects in the virtual worlds, like feeling spiders go across their mouths or the water from a drinking fountain. Some volunteers hit their faces as they felt the spider.

The goal is to make it easier for software engineers to use the mouth.

We want it to be drag-and-drop. It's possible to drag and drop color on objects, drag and drop materials, and change the scene through very simpleUI commands.

The demo was not perfect. Some users didn't feel anything at all. It can be difficult to calibrate the haptics for each face because they have a different facial structure. To work well, the transducers have to translate the commands to skin sensations.

This seems to be an interesting application of Haptics in a virtual environment. It would make object interaction more realistic.

The researchers at the University of Chicago are using chemicals instead of sound waves. They were able to mimic sensations such as heat, cool, and even a stinging sensation.

At the Consumer Electronics Show in January, a startup named Actronika showed off a vest. This uses voice-coil motors to mimic a wide range of sounds. This would allow the wearer to feel anything from waterdrops to bullets.

There are many efforts to make virtual reality a reality. The closer we get to Mark Zuckerburg's vision of the metaverse, the more we discover new ways to interact with virtual worlds.

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