Learning special relativity energy laws using visio-haptic illusion

Abstract

Visual analysis of complex scientific simulation data often gain to be completed by an exploration with advanced Virtual Reality modalities as the haptic channel. But exploiting the haptic channel with a force-feedback device can be problematic when the profile of the forces to be conveyed to the user is inherently nonlinear. As application domain we are interested in learning relativity. Specifically, we focused our interest in studying the evolution of the kinetic energy of an object approaching the speed of the light. Indeed, the divergent value of momentum for a fast moving object is a difficult concept to understand for students in theoretical physics. In this didactic context, we propose to use a spring launcher based visuohaptic metaphor to allows a user to i) intuitively set the speed of objects in a relativistic framework and ii) access to the law beside the momentum value through this interactive experience. In this context, we imply that a user could interpret and remember an abstract mathematical concept by experiencing it in a VR simulation without having any knowledge and experience neither with haptic rendering nor with special relativity knowledge. In this paper, the contribution of visuo-haptic illusion and pseudo-haptic techniques is analysed with respect to a standard visual-haptic coupling. After formulating the laws of haptic control for this specific problem, a first evaluation is presented with preliminary results. These first results highlight the effectiveness of pseudo-haptic rendering technique used for the interaction design with a complex force profiles and its interpretation taking into account a didactic goal.