TanGo: Exploring Expressive Tangible Interactions on Head-Mounted Displays

We present TanGo, an always-available input modality on VR headset, which can be complementary to current VR accessories. TanGO is an active mechanical structure symmetrically equipped on Head-Mounted Display, enabling 3-dimensional bimanual sliding input with each degree of freedom furnished a brake system driven by micro servo generating totally 6 passive resistive force profiles. TanGo is an all-in-one structure that possess rich input and output while keeping compactness with the trade-offs between size, weight and usability. Users can actively gesture like pushing, shearing, or squeezing with specific output provided while allowing hands to rest in stationary experiences. TanGo also renders users flexibility to switch seamlessly between virtual and real usage in Augmented Reality without additional efforts and instruments. We demonstrate three applications to show the interaction space of TanGo and then discuss its limitation and show future possibilities based on preliminary user feedback.