New Thermal Taste Actuation Technology for Future Multisensory Virtual Reality and Internet

Today’s virtual reality (VR) applications are mainly based on audio, visual, and haptic interactions between human and virtual world. Integrating the sense of taste into VR is difficult since we are dependent on chemical-based taste delivery systems. Therefore, developing a proper non-chemical digital taste actuation technology can unlock taste experiences in VR applications such as gaming, multisensory entertainment, remote dining, and online shopping. This paper presents the ‘Thermal Taste Machine’, a new digital taste actuation technology that can effectively produce and modify thermal taste sensations on the tongue. This device changes the temperature of the surface of the tongue within a short period of time (from 25 ◦ C to 40 ◦ C while heating and from 25 ◦ C to 10 ◦ C while cooling). We tested this device on human subjects and described the experience of thermal taste using 20 known (taste and non-taste) sensations. Our results suggested that rapidly heating the tongue produce sweetness, fatty/oiliness, electric taste, warmness, and reduced the sensibility for metallic taste. Similarly, participants reported that the cooling the tongue produced mint taste, pleasantness, and coldness. By conducting an another user study on the perceived sweetness of sucrose solutions after the thermal stimulation, we found that heating the tongue significantly enhanced the intensity of sweetness for both thermal tasters and non-thermal tasters. Also, we found that faster temperature rise on the tongue produce more intense sweet sensations for thermal tasters. We believe that this technology will be useful in two ways: First, it can produce taste sensations without using chemicals for the individuals who are sensitive to thermal taste. Second, the temperature rise of the device can be used as a way to enhance the intensity of sweetness. We believe that this technology can be used to digitally produce and enhance taste sensations in future virtual reality applications. The key novelties of this paper are as follows: 1. Development of a thermal taste actuation technology for stimulating the human taste receptors, 2. Characterization of the thermal taste produced by the device based on a set of taste related sensations and non-taste related sensations, 3. Research on enhancing the intensity for sucrose using thermal stimulation, 4. Research on how different speeds of heating affect the intensity of sweetness produced by thermal stimulation

Digitally Stimulating the Sensation of Taste Through Electrical and Thermal Stimulation

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Is Multimedia Multisensorial? - A Review of Mulsemedia Systems

© 2018 Copyright held by the owner/author(s). Mulsemedia - multiple sensorial media - makes possible the inclusion of layered sensory stimulation and interaction through multiple sensory channels. e recent upsurge in technology and wearables provides mulsemedia researchers a vehicle for potentially boundless choice. However, in order to build systems that integrate various senses, there are still some issues that need to be addressed. is review deals with mulsemedia topics remained insu ciently explored by previous work, with a focus on multi-multi (multiple media - multiple senses) perspective, where multiple types of media engage multiple senses. Moreover, it addresses the evolution of previously identi ed challenges in this area and formulates new exploration directions.This article was funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program under Grant Agreement no. 688503

Advanced Virtual Reality Technology in the Field of Education

The main objective of this paper is to improvise the VR framework in the field of education in which we can add additional features that help the students to learn subjects in a more interesting and interacting way, which makes learning more effective for the students and they experience the subject in a virtual world

Advancing proxy-based haptic feedback in virtual reality

This thesis advances haptic feedback for Virtual Reality (VR). Our work is guided by Sutherland's 1965 vision of the ultimate display, which calls for VR systems to control the existence of matter. To push towards this vision, we build upon proxy-based haptic feedback, a technique characterized by the use of passive tangible props. The goal of this thesis is to tackle the central drawback of this approach, namely, its inflexibility, which yet hinders it to fulfill the vision of the ultimate display. Guided by four research questions, we first showcase the applicability of proxy-based VR haptics by employing the technique for data exploration. We then extend the VR system's control over users' haptic impressions in three steps. First, we contribute the class of Dynamic Passive Haptic Feedback (DPHF) alongside two novel concepts for conveying kinesthetic properties, like virtual weight and shape, through weight-shifting and drag-changing proxies. Conceptually orthogonal to this, we study how visual-haptic illusions can be leveraged to unnoticeably redirect the user's hand when reaching towards props. Here, we contribute a novel perception-inspired algorithm for Body Warping-based Hand Redirection (HR), an open-source framework for HR, and psychophysical insights. The thesis concludes by proving that the combination of DPHF and HR can outperform the individual techniques in terms of the achievable flexibility of the proxy-based haptic feedback.Diese Arbeit widmet sich haptischem Feedback für Virtual Reality (VR) und ist inspiriert von Sutherlands Vision des ultimativen Displays, welche VR-Systemen die Fähigkeit zuschreibt, Materie kontrollieren zu können. Um dieser Vision näher zu kommen, baut die Arbeit auf dem Konzept proxy-basierter Haptik auf, bei der haptische Eindrücke durch anfassbare Requisiten vermittelt werden. Ziel ist es, diesem Ansatz die für die Realisierung eines ultimativen Displays nötige Flexibilität zu verleihen. Dazu bearbeiten wir vier Forschungsfragen und zeigen zunächst die Anwendbarkeit proxy-basierter Haptik durch den Einsatz der Technik zur Datenexploration. Anschließend untersuchen wir in drei Schritten, wie VR-Systeme mehr Kontrolle über haptische Eindrücke von Nutzern erhalten können. Hierzu stellen wir Dynamic Passive Haptic Feedback (DPHF) vor, sowie zwei Verfahren, die kinästhetische Eindrücke wie virtuelles Gewicht und Form durch Gewichtsverlagerung und Veränderung des Luftwiderstandes von Requisiten vermitteln. Zusätzlich untersuchen wir, wie visuell-haptische Illusionen die Hand des Nutzers beim Greifen nach Requisiten unbemerkt umlenken können. Dabei stellen wir einen neuen Algorithmus zur Body Warping-based Hand Redirection (HR), ein Open-Source-Framework, sowie psychophysische Erkenntnisse vor. Abschließend zeigen wir, dass die Kombination von DPHF und HR proxy-basierte Haptik noch flexibler machen kann, als es die einzelnen Techniken alleine können

Resonating Experiences of Self and Others enabled by a Tangible Somaesthetic Design

Digitalization is penetrating every aspect of everyday life including a human's heart beating, which can easily be sensed by wearable sensors and displayed for others to see, feel, and potentially "bodily resonate" with. Previous work in studying human interactions and interaction designs with physiological data, such as a heart's pulse rate, have argued that feeding it back to the users may, for example support users' mindfulness and self-awareness during various everyday activities and ultimately support their wellbeing. Inspired by Somaesthetics as a discipline, which focuses on an appreciation of the living body's role in all our experiences, we designed and explored mobile tangible heart beat displays, which enable rich forms of bodily experiencing oneself and others in social proximity. In this paper, we first report on the design process of tangible heart displays and then present results of a field study with 30 pairs of participants. Participants were asked to use the tangible heart displays during watching movies together and report their experience in three different heart display conditions (i.e., displaying their own heart beat, their partner's heart beat, and watching a movie without a heart display). We found, for example that participants reported significant effects in experiencing sensory immersion when they felt their own heart beats compared to the condition without any heart beat display, and that feeling their partner's heart beats resulted in significant effects on social experience. We refer to resonance theory to discuss the results, highlighting the potential of how ubiquitous technology could utilize physiological data to provide resonance in a modern society facing social acceleration.Comment: 18 page