Haptic information significantly improves human awareness of objects in virtual reality. One way of presenting this information is via encountered-type haptic feedback. An advantage of encounter type feedback is that it enables physical interaction with virtual environments without the need for specialized haptic devices on the hand. Additionally, encountered-type haptics are known for being able to provide high quality contact feedback to the user. However, such systems are typically designed to be grounded (i.e., fixed to the floor). As such, they typically have bounded workspace and a limited range of possible applications. In this work, we present a novel, wearable approach to presenting a user with encountered-type haptic feedback. We realize this feedback using a wearable robotic limb that holds a plate where the user might interact with their environment. An appropriate location for the plate is determined by a novel haptic solver while control of the arm is made possible using motion trackers. The system was designed to be stable, for presenting consistent haptic feedback, while also being safe and lightweight for wearability. By making the feedback system wearable, we enable the presentation of stiff feedback while maintaining the spatial freedom and unbounded workspace of natural hand interaction. Herein, we present the design of the novel system, mechanical and safety considerations when designing a wearable encountered-type system, and an evaluation of the system. A technical evaluation of the implemented system showed that the system provides a stiffness over 25 N/m and slant angle errors under 3°. Three user studies show the limitations of haptic slant perception in humans and the quantitative and qualitative effectiveness of the current prototype system. We conclude the paper by discussing various potentialapplications and possible improvements that could be made to the system.

We introduce MetaArms, wearable anthropomorphic robotic arms and hands with six degrees of freedom operated by the user's legs and feet. Our overall research goal is to re-imagine what our bodies can do with the aid of wearable robotics using a body-remapping approach. To this end, we present an initial exploratory case study. MetaArms' two robotic arms are controlled by the user's feet motion, and the robotic hands can grip objects according to the user's toes bending. Haptic feedback is also presented on the user's feet that correlate with the touched objects on the robotic hands, creating a closed-loop system. We present formal and informal evaluations of the system, the former using a 2D pointing task according to Fitts' Law. The overall throughput for 12 users of the system is reported as 1.01 bits/s (std 0.39). We also present informal feedback from over 230 users. We find that MetaArms demonstrate the feasibility of body-remapping approach in designing robotic limbs that may help us re-imagine what the human body could do.

In this paper, we analyze the subjective feelings about the body of the operator of a telexistence system. We investigate whether a mirror reflection and self-touch affect body ownership and agency for a surrogate robot avatar in a virtual reality experiment. Results showed that the presence of tactile sensations synchronized with the view of self-touch events enhanced mirror self-recognition.

We propose an indirect-vision, video-see-through augmented reality (AR) cockpit that uses telexistence technology to provide an AR enriched, virtually transparent view of the surroundings through monitors instead of windows. Such a virtual view has the potential to enhance driving performance and experience above conventional glass as well as head-up display equipped cockpits by combining AR overlays with images obtained by future image sensors that are superior to human eyes. As a proof of concept, we replaced the front windshield of an experimental car by a large stereoscopic monitor. A robotic stereo camera pair that mimics the driver's head motions provides stereoscopic images with seamless motion parallax to the monitor. Initial driving tests at moderate speeds on roads within our research facility confirmed the illusion of transparency. We will conduct human factors evaluations after implementing AR functions in order to show whether it is possible to achieve an overall benefit over conventional cockpits in spite of possible conceptual issues like latency, shift of viewpoint and short distance between driver and display.