Pull-Navi

Organization: The University of Electro-Communications
Authors: Yuichiro Kojima, Yuki Hashimoto, Shogo Fukushima, Hiroyuki Kajimoto
Abstract: We proposed and developed a new type of interface for walk navigation that pull users ears.
The interface is composed of two clips attached to earlobes, six DC motors to pull each ear in three directions, and a helmet that mount them. A user wears the helmet and nips each earlobe by the clips. We confirmed by experiment that users were inevitably tempted to move right/left when their right/left ears were pulled to right/left. When both ears were pulled forward/backward, the users were tempted to walk faster/slower. Interestingly, when both ears were pulled up/down, the users were tempted to walk up/down the stairs if there were stairs in front.
There are three merits in our interface. First one is naturalness. Our interface needed quite small force to pull the ears, and the users were tempted to walk to the guided direction without any pain or enforced feelings. This is presumably because we commonly have been pulled our ears in our young age. The second one is numerous degrees of freedom. While most previous tactile navigation system achieved at most two DOF navigation, our new interface can direct full 3-DOF directions (right, left, front, back, up and down). This feature is quite useful for indoor situation, such as navigation in a complex department store or transfer at subway station. The last one is compact architecture. We used small and lightweight motors to pull ears, and further miniaturization is easy. We have already developed a glasses-mounted prototype so far.
There have been many works on tactile navigation system, none of which is now in practical use except some devices for visually handicapped people. With the advantages of Pull-Navi, we hope it will be the first successful tactile walk guidance system.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Wearable
• Navigation
• Haptic
• Ear
• Laval Virtual
• Virtual Reality
• Réalité Virtuelle