Towards Fully Tangible Immersive Virtual Environments
Head-mounted stereoscopic displays provide a glimpse of virtual reality, but cannot alone fulfill the promise of fully tangible immersive virtual environments. In order to move towards this vision, we must enable natural mobility with locomotion devices, we must develop haptic interfaces for dexterous and realistic object interaction, and we must design suitable, versatile, tangible input devices. In this talk, I will outline my personal journey into the field of immersive haptics and I will showcase the prototypes and research that I have produced thus far. I will show how we have used the pantograph mechanism to enable stiff and transparent interactions with virtual planes and surfaces, while maintaining user mobility. I will conclude by outlining the paradigms and principles which form the groundwork for my future work in locomotion, object interaction, and input devices.
Bio:
Marcus Friedel is a masters researcher supervised by Ryo Suzuki and Ehud Sharlin in the University of Calgary's Interactions Lab. He prototypes and researches heavy haptics and input devices for immersive computing, driven by a passion to have and make use of these immersive haptic technologies as a consumer. He has been awarded numerous scholarships and awards, including the NSERC CGS-M, the Alberta Innovates Graduate Student Scholarship, a UIST '22 Student Innovation Competition Honorable Mention, the Departmental Research Award, and the Hugh Heasley Engineering Scholarship. Prior to joining the University of Calgary, Marcus earned his B.A.Sc in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Waterloo.
