Geppetteau: Enabling haptic perceptions of virtual fluids in various vessel profiles using a string-driven haptic interface

Abstract

What we feel from handling liquids in vessels produces unmistakably fluid tactile sensations. These stimulate essential perceptions in home, laboratory, or industrial contexts. Feeling fluid interactions from virtual fluids would similarly enrich experiences in virtual reality. We introduce Geppetteau, a novel string-driven weight shifting mechanism capable of providing perceivable tactile sensations of handling virtual liquids within a variety of vessel shapes. These mechanisms widen the range of augmentable shapes beyond the state-of-the-art of existing mechanical systems. In this work, Geppetteau is integrated into conical, spherical, cylindrical, and cuboid shaped vessels. Variations of these shapes are often used for fluid containers in our day-to-day. We studied the effectiveness of Geppetteau in simulating fine and coarse-grained tactile sensations of virtual liquids across three user studies. Participants found Geppetteau successful in providing congruent physical sensations of handling virtual liquids in a variety of physical vessel shapes and virtual liquid volumes and viscosities.