GravityCup: A Liquid-based Haptics for Simulating Dynamic Weight in Virtual

Reality
∗ ∗ ∗
Chih-Hao Cheng , Chia-Chi Chang , Ying-Hsuan Chen ,
† ∗ ∗ ∗
Yang-Sheng Cen , Ping-Hsuan Han , Jhu-Chun Ko , Lai-Chung Lee
∗ †
National Taipei University of Technology, National Taiwan University

Figure 1: We introduce GravityCup, a new haptic display which can offer dynamic weight and inertia through liquid in the virtual space for
enhancing the experience of weight sensation. Here are the scenarios about a user is experiencing the weight of handheld containers in
virtual environment: (a) lifting a cup to fill with coffee by a machine, (b) carrying a watering can and water a plant, (c) holding a container
to scoop up dog food and pour into a dog bowl, (d) holding an empty cup and feel the change of the gravity and weight.

ABSTRACT simulates weight sensation through generating shearing stress

Many haptic displays can provide users various kinds of
sensations during the interaction in a virtual environment. Like
vibration, texture simulation and electrical muscle stimulation,
and so on. However, human can perceive weight of an object
naturally in daily life, therefore users feel unrealistic lightweight
when they pick up an object in virtual reality. To recreate an
immersive experience in virtual reality with weight sensation, we
propose a liquid-based haptic feedback device, GravityCup, which
can simulate realistic weight of objects and offer inertia when
moving virtual handheld objects. Based on different scenarios,
GravityCup can provide users dynamic weight sensation
experience for enhancing the interaction with handheld objects in
virtual reality through the liquid.
CCS CONCEPTS
• Human-centered computing~Virtual reality
KEYWORDS
virtual reality, weight simulation, haptics, liquid-based
ACM Reference format:
Chug-Hao Chang, Chia-Chi Chang, Ying-Hsuan Chen, Yang-Sheng Chen,
Ping-Hsuan Han, Ju-Chun Ko, Lai-Chung Lee. 2018. GravityCup: A Liquid-
based Haptics for Simulating Dynamic Weight in Virtual Reality. In
Proceedings of SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 Virtual & Augmented Reality, Tokyo, Japan,
December 2018, 2 pages.
1 INTRODUCTION
Human can perceive weight intuitively in the realistic world.
However, we hardly sense the weight of an object and related
changes when picking up a virtual object in a virtual environment.
Many pieces of research study in the solution to simulate the
weight of object so far. For instance, Gravity Grabber
[Minamizawa et al. 2007] is a wearable haptic device which
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and vertical stress to finger skin by tightening a belt with two
motors. Similarly, there is a bed-style haptic display named
“Haptic Bed” [Koge et al. 2014] that provides weight sensation
through the system which comprises motors, belts, a cushion and
a comforter to press and swing the user lying on the bed. This
kind of display develops wearable devices to provide tight stress
to simulate weight sensation and changes. Moreover, there is a
haptic interface design named MasterFinger-2 [Monroy et al. 2008]
which offers multipoint contact interface for bimanual
manipulation. It uses motors to apply forces to users’ fingers, and
the operation area is restricted by the mechanical design since it’s
grounded. [Giachritsis et al. 2009] Besides, AirGlove [Gurocak et
al. 2003] can apply an arbitrary point force which includes weight
sensation to the user’s hand through air thrust force. Thus, it
requires six tubing to transmit compressed air. Next, Grabity
[Choi et al. 2017] uses asymmetric vibration to simulate weight,
and it is a mobile and unconstrained device which able to simulate
two aspect weight of an object. The vibration can dominate the
experience for some, and the simulated weight range is limited by
the power of voice coil. Additionally, some of these devices
simulate weight dynamically by changing the center of mass. For
example, TorqueBAR [Swindells et al. 2003] is an ungrounded
haptic feedback device that provides dynamic inertial feedback by
shifting the center of mass from right to left and vice versa. This
device makes users perceive weight changes between hands
during the weight-shifting process. However, it has large size and
heavy weight (1050g). Furthermore, [Hemmert et al. 2010] is an
example of a lightweight haptic display for using in mobile phones
with weight-shifting module. In addition, there is an ungrounded
generic physical proxy called Shifty [Zenner et al. 2017] which
changes its passive haptic properties to enhance the weight
perception of objects during VR interaction by using actuators to
shift an internal weight gradually. This kind of displays have
portability, and their center of the mass could be changed in a
designated range by rails or belts. Nevertheless, users have to hold
the entire device and the weight in whole process.
Lastly, we present GravityCup. GravityCup is a solution that
provides weight sensation via liquid which can easily transmit
weight according to the fluid characteristic. Also, GravityCup can
SIGGRAPH Asia 2018 Virtual & Augmented Reality, December 2018, Tokyo, Japan
simulate the inertia of container while keeping high realistic
feelings.
Figure 2: Hardware Design of GravityCup: (a) sealed water bag,
(b) pumping motor, (c) water pipe, (d) Arduino and other
modules, (e) battery, (f) Vive Tracker.
2 IMPLEMENTATION
GravityCup consists of a liquid-based weight simulating system
and a VR system. First, the liquid-based weight simulating system
has two parts. One is a handheld device, and the other part is a
wearable device on waist. These two parts are combined with a
water pipe. Each of them contains a sealed water bag and a
pumping motor. For the handheld device, we can track its position
by a Vive Tracker which is installed under its container. For the
wearable device on waist, it contains an Arduino Nano with
batteries and Bluetooth module which control the pumping
motors in two parts. In our VR system, we use HTC Vive Head-
Mounted Display(HMD) for virtual visual display and a PC with
Intel Core i7- 4790 CPU, 16GB memory and an NVIDIA GeForce
GTX 1070. Furthermore, for the software, we use Unity to
integrate 3D virtual environment and interactive objects. The
most visual feedbacks are displayed by the Unity particle system
during the whole experience. For the function, when experiencing
a situation that needs to increase weight gradually in the virtual
scene, the pumping motor in the wearable device on waist
transmits the water to sealed water bag in the handheld device.
This makes the weight of the handheld device rise. And vice versa,
when experiencing a situation that needs to decrease weight
gradually, the pumping motor in the handheld device transmits
the water back to sealed water bag in the wearable device on waist.
For detail information, GravityCup can transmit 330g weight in
16.82 seconds which the transmit rate is 19.62 g/s, and it can
simulate the range of weight in user’s hand from 700g to 1030g.
Totally, 47.14% of our handheld device is used for dynamic weight
simulation. And the entire device with water weights 1400g,
which is dispersed on user’s hand and waist.
3 APPLICATION
The virtual scene for experiencing GravityCup is at a cozy
household environment.
The first scene is that a friend asks the user to make a cup of coffee
and put on a table. The user lifts a cup to fill with coffee by a
machine. At this moment, the weight of the handheld device
ascends gradually. Then puts it on the table.
The second scene is that the user carries a watering can and puts
it in front of an automatic faucet. The watering can is filled with
water. At this time, the weight of the handheld device increases.
Afterward, the user waters a plant by tilting the watering can.
This moment, the weight of the handheld device decreases.
The third scene is around a corner of a kitchen. The user holds a
dog food container and scoops up dog food from a dog food bag.
Cheng et. al.
Meanwhile, the weight of the handheld device increases. The user
pours the dog food into a dog bowl. This moment, the weight of
the handheld device decreases. A dog enjoys the meal.
The fourth scene is that the user holds an empty virtual cup in a
room. The user feels the origin weight of the cup. Meanwhile, the
handheld device contains the maximum amount of water. Further,
a cue tone for changing the gravity appears. The gravity in the
room is changed with time. Many of the objects in the room float
in the air. At this time, the weight of the handheld device descends.
The user feels the empty virtual cup loses its weight little by little.
4 DISCUSSION AND FUTURE WORK
GravityCup can provide users haptic feedback experience in
liquid weight increment, liquid weight decrement, inertia of liquid,
and solid particles collision in a container and change of gravity
in the virtual environment. We can apply this display to enhance
the experience in games, training, and rehabilitation, etc.
GravityCup consists of the handheld device part and the wearable
device part. We install the wearable device on the back of users
waist to avoid users from being disturbed. Moreover, the users
usually focus on the change of weight of the handheld device and
ignore the weight of the wearable device on waist during the
transmission of the liquid.
For the future work, we will enhance the range of simulated
weight based on the situation by adding a different mass of liquid.
Additionally, the simulation of solid particles collision, it could be
enhanced by the sound effect. Finally, we will conduct a further
user study to investigate the utility.
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/TVCG.2017.2656978