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Senior Project of the issue
Tactile Footwear Interface to Create the Illusion of Walking on Different Surfaces
Khaled Rizk , Faher Bakri , Mohammad Khader
Supervied by :Dr. Osama Halabi
This project aims to design and develop an integrated system of feet-haptic insole and MR environment to create the illusion of
walking on virtual textures. This system contributes to the enhancement of the realism provided by virtual and augmented reality.
Based on literature found in recent studies, the vibration tactile approach is implemented to create the perception of physical
properties of textures. The majority of applications that simulate the texture sensations considered the tactile communication
through hand. However, this project customizes the mechanisms and techniques of creating texture perception to fit feet sensation
taking in consideration the nature and the distribution of mechanoreceptors in the foot’s sole skin. Two main parameters are used
to control the tactile vibrators: PWM frequency, and motor activation time. Well-designed virtual/augmented environments are used
with several scenarios to examine the realism provided by the system. In addition, the system deploys an algorithm to detect and
analyze the user movement behavior in order to provide more realistic experience. Therefore, this project provides a fully immersing
virtual/augmented experience to the user utilizing visual, auditory, and tactile means. In this project, several experiments are
conducted to investigate the texture recognition rate among different users, as well as the satisfaction rate for the enhancement
added by the haptic technology. The applications of the system that are developed in this project are very wide including
rehabilitation, gamifications, training, and entertainment.