ETHOS: A Robotic Encountered-Type Haptic Display for Social Interaction in Virtual Reality
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arXiv
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2025
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| _version_ | 1866917268800143360 |
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| author | Godden, Eric Groenewegen, Jacquie Pan, Matthew K. X. J. |
| author_facet | Godden, Eric Groenewegen, Jacquie Pan, Matthew K. X. J. |
| contents | We present ETHOS (Encountered-Type Haptics for On-demand Social Interaction), a dynamic encountered-type haptic display (ETHD) that enables natural physical contact in virtual reality (VR) during social interactions such as handovers, fist bumps, and high-fives. The system integrates a torque-controlled robotic manipulator with interchangeable passive props (silicone hand replicas and a baton), marker-based physical-virtual registration via a ChArUco board, and a safety monitor that gates motion based on the user's head and hand pose. We introduce two control strategies: (i) a static mode that presents a stationary prop aligned with its virtual counterpart, consistent with prior ETHD baselines, and (ii) a dynamic mode that continuously updates prop position by exponentially blending an initial mid-point trajectory with real-time hand tracking, generating a unique contact point for each interaction. Bench tests show static colocation accuracy of 5.09 +/- 0.94 mm, while user interactions achieved temporal alignment with an average contact latency of 28.53 +/- 31.21 ms across all interaction and control conditions. These results demonstrate the feasibility of recreating socially meaningful haptics in VR. By incorporating essential safety and control mechanisms, ETHOS establishes a practical foundation for high-fidelity, dynamic interpersonal interactions in virtual environments. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2511_05379 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2025 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | ETHOS: A Robotic Encountered-Type Haptic Display for Social Interaction in Virtual Reality Godden, Eric Groenewegen, Jacquie Pan, Matthew K. X. J. Robotics Systems and Control We present ETHOS (Encountered-Type Haptics for On-demand Social Interaction), a dynamic encountered-type haptic display (ETHD) that enables natural physical contact in virtual reality (VR) during social interactions such as handovers, fist bumps, and high-fives. The system integrates a torque-controlled robotic manipulator with interchangeable passive props (silicone hand replicas and a baton), marker-based physical-virtual registration via a ChArUco board, and a safety monitor that gates motion based on the user's head and hand pose. We introduce two control strategies: (i) a static mode that presents a stationary prop aligned with its virtual counterpart, consistent with prior ETHD baselines, and (ii) a dynamic mode that continuously updates prop position by exponentially blending an initial mid-point trajectory with real-time hand tracking, generating a unique contact point for each interaction. Bench tests show static colocation accuracy of 5.09 +/- 0.94 mm, while user interactions achieved temporal alignment with an average contact latency of 28.53 +/- 31.21 ms across all interaction and control conditions. These results demonstrate the feasibility of recreating socially meaningful haptics in VR. By incorporating essential safety and control mechanisms, ETHOS establishes a practical foundation for high-fidelity, dynamic interpersonal interactions in virtual environments. |
| title | ETHOS: A Robotic Encountered-Type Haptic Display for Social Interaction in Virtual Reality |
| topic | Robotics Systems and Control |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2511.05379 |