STUDENT CHOICE PEER REVIEW-1
November 20 2018
Choice 1:DISNEY'S FORCE JACKET
For this week,we have to review two student's choice that were presented during week 12 and 13.My first choice for the review is DISNEY'S FORCE JACKET presented by Krishnamoorthy.Initially,it got my attention as it's developed by Disney,one of my dream company.Another major reason is that after working on VR project,I felt it would be really great if the player can actuallly sense the object's motion and get physical feedback in VR application.The inclusion of haptic feedback in such experiences has been bought in action by Disney's force jacket.The design and the features of jackets are developed in such a way that it enhances the experience.
It is basically a haptic wearable system which consists pneumatically-actuated airbags and force sensors that provides force and high-frequency vibrations against the upper body in correspondence with visual media.Each airbag in the jacket is equipped with force sensitive resistors.The air is supplied in each compartment through individual solenoid valves.For air removal,a vacuum pump is also connected to the bags.The airbags is controlled by three Teensy 3.6 microcontrollers.The idea behind such design is to provide novel haptic embodied experience by multi-area pneumatic force feedback.The overall engineering of this product is highly applausable.
The design of the jacket is in form of a vest with sleeves which makes it comfortable for the user.In place of foam,there are airbags.It is available in various sizes that fits the requirement of person of different height and weight.The airbags initiate the motion across the body.The ripstop nylon and mesh materials used for jacket complements it and keeps iut lightweight.The team has very well concentrated on the software design behind the product.The algorithm is very effecient and with the logic that each airbag has to reach target force [N] that would be dynamically adjusted from other software on a computer.In case the force is lower than N,the airbags would inflate.The research is well focused on sensation called "FEEL-EFFECT" which is a mapping between language space and haptic space.To control the sequence of haptic sensation,the research team developed Haptic Effect Editor.This editor comprises of two GUI's a Simple Editor to control an individual airbag’s inflation and deflation sequence and a Motion Editor to create the sense of an event moving over the body.The team did a survey on a bunch of people to study the "FEEL EFFECT" sensation for further improvements.The outcome of the survey is mentioned in images below.
The equipment was designed with focus on entertainment industry but the roots were also founded in remote communication and assisting rehabilitation for patients.With further advancement,it's application can be extended to certain other fields as well.There are also several limitations such as Noise of the compressor and vacuum pump,the user’s ability to rotate or move in the VR space.This is one of the most promising product in the field of virtual reality.It has refined the virtual experience to a new level.The improvement in various feel effects that were low rated by user ,it will become one of the most challenging product in future.