omnipulse – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

May 12, 2017

Haptic Skin Created By Cornell Research Lab Makes VR Feel More Human

Virtual reality is great at bringing two of our senses into the digital world: sight and sound. That VR tech is already well-established and improving rapidly. However, we still aren’t at a point where we can touch, smell, or taste things inside of a VR headset. Obviously taste is the most important of these to solve (can you imagine VR Pac Man?) but for now let’s settle on haptic feedback for touch.

The Cornell University Organic Robotics Lab has created a prototype that allows VR experiences to provide tactile feedback while you play. It’s called the Omnipulse and, well, you really need to see it to believe it.

What you’re seeing above is not, as I originally thought, the soul of that Vive controller trying to escape into a human host. It’s actually a series of pneumatic tubes that connect to several pockets embedded into the Omnipulse’s synthetic rubber skin.

The skin is connected to a tube of compressed air via a narrow hose. When you trigger an action inside of VR the compressed air is released strategically into the specific pockets necessary for mimicking the physical sensation of that action.

The Omnipulse can mimic everything from shooting a gun to grabbing a hammer. It was seen running this week at GTC 2017 where it was connected to NVIDIA’s Funhouse demo. Inside the virtual carnival users could feel the recoil of various weapons and the impact of reflex-testing boxing and whack-a-mole mini-games.

The Omnipulse is still a very early prototype and it honestly doesn’t seem very likely that we will one day be buying tanks of compressed air for our living rooms. However, the Cornell team’s work here is impressive in that it shows that believable haptic feedback can be achieved with relatively cheap components through a device that connects simply to your pre-existing VR controller.

Unlocking our sense of touch in VR will take time but breakthroughs like this will help us get there quicker. Now if only they had a prototype to let me taste the gun I was shooting. Then we’d really be in business.

h/t – Techradar

Tagged with: Omnipulse

May 11, 2017

Textures in Haptics for VR with Omnipulse

As the rise in virtual reality (VR) has happened, so has the opportunity to develop new methods for increasing immersion. From wind machines and smell pods to moving chairs, many things have been tried, but one of the most popular has been to stimulate the sense of touch using haptic feedback. A team ar Cornell University are aiming to advance the science of haptic technology for a better, more immersive experience.

Current haptic technology is limited in that it mostly uses vibration to provide basic feedback, related to the vibration units found in controllers like PlayStation’s Dual Shock controllers. As such, it is unable to express a range of textures and sensations to the user. New technology out of Cornell University’s Organics Robotics Lab called Omnipulse.

The current version of the Omnipulse is a flexible rubber sheet which uses a pneumatic system to provide tactile feedback. The fact that it is thin rubber means it is able to be easily added in to several existing controllers like the Oculus Touch controllers or even controller gloves and haptic suits.

Though the Omnipulse is still in very early prototype stages, demonstrations have shown that it is capable of replicating sensations such as hitting an object with a hammer, the recoil of a gun, punching things and shooting a harmless water gun. The use of pneumatics means that the Omnipulse can replicate solid objects and soft, squishy textures.

It isn’t currently know if the creators of Omnipulse are aiming to have the technology integrated into existing controllers, and therefore provide their technology to companies like Oculus, HTC and Sony or if they are aiming to create their own Omnipulse equipped series of peripherals.

VRFocus will bring you further news on Omnipulse and other emerging haptic technologies.

May 9, 2017

This Pulsating ‘Haptic Skin’ is Somewhat Creepy, Mostly Awesome

Omnipulse is a new haptic technology out of Cornell’s Organic Robotics Lab which uses an array of embedded pneumatic actuators to create haptic feedback which feels quite ‘organic’ compared to the more ‘mechanical’ of many other haptic technologies out there. With the ability to form the flexible Omnipulse skin into arbitrary shapes, the technology could be integrated into VR controllers, gloves, or potentially even haptic VR suits.

Showing off their technology at GTC 2017 this week, the Organic Robotics Lab has been collaborating with NVIDIA to create compelling haptic feedback with a version of the Omnipulse skin which was adapted to a Vive controller. Running inside of Nvidia’s VR Funhouse demo, the lab showed the haptic system being used to convey sensations of gun recoil, hitting a hammer against objects, punching objects, and shooting a squirt gun.

The prototype haptic skin is shaped to conform to the controller and simply slides over top of the existing structure. From there it’s attached to a tether which, at this stage, contains one pneumatic tube per pulsating pocket (currently 12), though the creators tell me there are a number of ways to simplify the tether. The tether runs to a compressor which pressurizes air for use in inflating the various actuators; compressed gas like C02 could also be used for a system that wouldn’t need to rely on a powered compressor.

The sleeve itself feels like a piece of thick rubber, with a consistency similar to your own skin; combined with the roundness of the inflating pockets, the whole ordeal feels quite a bit more squishy and organic than many other haptics technologies we’ve used for VR. When you see it active on the controller when it isn’t in anyone’s hand, squirming and shaking the controller at times, it’s actually a little creepy how it seems… alive.

But that doesn’t mean it can only provide organic-feeling feedback. Actually the creators say it’s capable of applying a hearty 15 PSI against your hand (provided you keep a firm grip), which means it can push quite hard against your hand. I was surprised to find that the response time was fast enough to create a compelling feeling of the kick of a gun in my hand when I tried the demo.

When it comes to haptics, pneumatics are not new to the scene; we’ve seen it used in gun peripherals, haptic vests, and more in years past. What’s interesting about Omnipulse is the ability to integrate many pneumatic actuators within a tight space, and control them all independently from one another. This means more ‘haptic resolution’, and the ability to create more advanced haptic effects.