Haptic Intelligence Master Thesis 2025

Wrist-Worn Pressure Pulses for Phantom Directional Cues in VR

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Haptic Intelligence
  • Master Student

Haptic feedback in today's VR systems is often limited to vibration delivered through handheld controllers, leaving a gap for compact devices that can convey spatial cues without occupying the hands. This thesis presents the design and evaluation of SuperCUTE, a wrist-worn pressure feedback device that uses four soft electrohydraulic actuators to elicit phantom tactile sensations around the wrist. The device was evaluated with n = 20 participants in a user study comprising two tasks. In Task 1 (circular GUI), single-actuator cues produced tightly clustered responses (median resultant length R = 0.92); about 70% of trials fell within ± 22.5° of the stimulated cardinal. Adjacent-actuator pairs yielded in-between percepts (about 70% of reports), and intensity imbalance shifted perceived location toward the stronger actuator; reported intensity was higher for strong than weak drives (mean 0.76 vs. 0.32). Across cues, Rayleigh tests indicated strong clustering of response angles (median R ≈ 0.82). In Task 2 (VR), hand trajectories during 5 s cues aligned with cue geometry; end-directions showed strong clustering (median R ≈ 0.78), and latency estimated from a 1 cm displacement threshold had a median of 1.25 s (IQR 0.61 s). Questionnaire responses indicated clear, comfortable, and usable cues. Overall, pressure pulses are a feasible approach for directional wrist cues in VR. We provide device documentation, datasets, and analysis code to support pressure-based wearable haptics.

Author(s): Adam Kadmani
Year: 2025
Month: September
Project(s):
BibTeX Type: Master Thesis (mastersthesis)
Address: Munich, Germany
Degree Type: Master
Note: M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology
School: Technical University of Munich
State: Published

BibTeX

@mastersthesis{Kadmani25-M-Cues,
  title = {Wrist-Worn Pressure Pulses for Phantom Directional Cues in VR},
  abstract = {Haptic feedback in today's VR systems is often limited to vibration delivered through handheld controllers, leaving a gap for compact devices that can convey spatial cues without occupying the hands. This thesis presents the design and evaluation of SuperCUTE, a wrist-worn pressure feedback device that uses four soft electrohydraulic actuators to elicit phantom tactile sensations around the wrist. The device was evaluated with n = 20 participants in a user study comprising two tasks. In Task 1 (circular GUI), single-actuator cues produced tightly clustered responses (median resultant length R = 0.92); about 70% of trials fell within ± 22.5° of the stimulated cardinal. Adjacent-actuator pairs yielded in-between percepts (about 70% of reports), and intensity imbalance shifted perceived location toward the stronger actuator; reported intensity was higher for strong than weak drives (mean 0.76 vs. 0.32). Across cues, Rayleigh tests indicated strong clustering of response angles (median R ≈ 0.82). In Task 2 (VR), hand trajectories during 5 s cues aligned with cue geometry; end-directions showed strong clustering (median R ≈ 0.78), and latency estimated from a 1 cm displacement threshold had a median of 1.25 s (IQR 0.61 s). Questionnaire responses indicated clear, comfortable, and usable cues. Overall, pressure pulses are a feasible approach for directional wrist cues in VR. We provide device documentation, datasets, and analysis code to support pressure-based wearable haptics.},
  degree_type = {Master},
  school = {Technical University of Munich},
  address = {Munich, Germany},
  month = sep,
  year = {2025},
  note = {M.Sc. in Electrical Engineering and Information Technology},
  author = {Kadmani, Adam},
  month_numeric = {9}
}