Loop Corrected Virtual Tactile Interaction: From Haptic Sensing to Feedback Based on Integrated Glove Interface

ABSTRACT

Advanced tactile interfaces, regarding sensing and feedback functions, have revolutionized tactile interaction in virtual reality. These two build a bridge facilitating communication between the physical and virtual world, but were developed independently. A glove interface integrated with sensing and feedback is proposed for loop‐corrected virtual tactile interaction. It consists of an iontronic tactile sensor and micro‐discharge electrotactile feedback, which are integrated on the opisthenar and palm side of the textile glove, respectively. Iontronic sensor is modified with various sized micro pyramid and its springback hysteresis is reduced to 5.82% for dynamic pressure monitoring. Meanwhile, the electrotactile feedback is optimized with ideal micro‐gap discharge contributing to a safe current (about 40 µA) on the skin, supporting frequent electrostimulation for hierarchical feedback. In this loop‐corrected system, the iontronic tactile sensor can provide various pressure data originating from joint bending, consisting the data source for controlling the virtual hand, while the monitored virtual operation state is informed in the physical world by electrotactile feedback, and then the hand gesture is corrected according to feedback of various degrees to adjust the virtual counterpart. Thus, closed‐loop tactile interaction is accomplished, and this loop‐corrected glove interface is promising for realizing complicated but precise manipulation tasks in VR‐based human‐machine cooperation.