Remapped Physical-Virtual Interfaces with Bimanual Haptic Retargeting

This paper proposes a novel interface for virtual reality in which physical interface components are mapped to multiple virtual counterparts using haptic retargeting illusions. This gives virtual reality interfaces the ability to have correct haptic sensations for many virtual buttons although in the physical space there is only one. This is a generic system that can be applied to areas including design, interaction tasks, product prototype development and interactive games in virtual reality. The system presented extends existing retargeting algorithms to support asymmetric bimanual interactions. A new warp technique, called interface warp, was developed to support remapped virtual reality user interfaces. Through an experimental user study, we explore the effects of bimanual retargeting and the interface warp technique on task response time, errors, presence, perceived manipulation compared to unimanual (single handed) retargeting and other existing warp techniques. The results demonstrated faster task response time and less errors for the interface warp technique and shows no significant effect of bimanual interactions.