COMFlex: An Adaptive Haptic Interface with Shape-Changing and Weight-Shifting Mechanism for Immersive Virtual Reality

This work explores shape-changing and weight-shifting mechanisms for haptic interfaces to simulate various shapes and sizes in Virtual Reality (VR) for the industrial product design process. The COMFlex system offers haptic feedback in the form of a weight distribution changing (COM) and shape-changing (Flex) device while perceiving a visual representation in VR. Any state changes to the virtual representation are reflected by the COMFlex system, allowing live dynamic feedback to the user. We share initial findings from experimenting with COMFlex in several use cases for our follow up design improvements. Finally, future work is discussed, including physical changes to the device and potential applications.