JetController: High-speed Ungrounded 3-DoF Force Feedback Controllers using Air Propulsion Jets

ABSTRACT

JetController is a novel high-speed, persistent 3-DoF ungrounded force feedback controller. It uses high-speed pneumatic solenoid valves to modulate compressed air to achieve full impulses of 50Hz at 1.0N (20Hz at 4.0N), and combines multiple air propulsion jets to generate 3-DoF ungrounded force feedback. Compared to propeller-based approaches, JetController supports 10-30 times faster impulse frequency, and its handheld device is significantly lighter and more compact. JetController enables a wide range of haptic events in games and VR experiences, from firing automatic weapons in games like Halo (15Hz) to slicing fruits in Fruit Ninja in 3-DoF (up to 45Hz). To demonstrate JetController, we integrated our prototype with two best-selling VR games, Half-life: Alyx and Fruit Ninja VR, to highlight a variety of 3-DoF interactions that were not possible before.

References

1. Seongkook Heo, Christina Chung, Geehyuk Lee, and Daniel Wigdor. 2018. Thor’s Hammer: An Ungrounded Force Feedback Device Utilizing Propeller-Induced Propulsive Force. In Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Montreal QC, Canada) (CHI ’18). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1145/3173574.3174099
2. Shi-Hong Liu, Pai-Chien Yen, Yi-Hsuan Mao, Yu-Hsin Lin, Erick Chandra, and Mike Y. Chen. 2020. HeadBlaster: A Wearable Approach to Simulating Motion Perception Using Head-Mounted Air Propulsion Jets. ACM Trans. Graph. 39, 4, Article 84 (jul 2020), 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3386569.3392482
3. Yu-Wei Wang, Yu-Hsin Lin, Pin-Sung Ku, Yōko Miyatake, Yi-Hsuan Mao, Po Yu Chen, Chun-Miao Tseng, and Mike Y. Chen. 2021. JetController: High-Speed Ungrounded 3-DoF Force Feedback Controllers Using Air Propulsion Jets. In Proceedings of the 2021 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (Yokohama, Japan) (CHI ’21). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, Article 124, 12 pages. https://doi.org/10.1145/3411764.3445549

Index Terms

• Computing methodologies

  • Computer graphics

    • Graphics systems and interfaces

• Human-centered computing

  • Human computer interaction (HCI)

    • Interaction devices

      • Haptic devices

    • Interaction paradigms

      • Mixed / augmented reality

      • Virtual reality