Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality for Rehabilitation Therapy

For the last year, my goal has been to bring a sense of touch to virtual reality gaming. I work as an electrical engineer at the Rehabilitation Games and Virtual Reality Laboratory in the Department of Physical Therapy to give my tasks direction. The game controller I am developing works by pushing back against the direction the user is moving their arm. This creates the sensation of moving through a thick liquid. I attended the Canadian Undergraduate Computer Science Conference in Toronto, Canada to present my research. The audience was curious to learn about the different elements of control theory that come into play in order to make my games safe and fun.

At the conference, I also had the opportunity to see other student presentations in a variety of fields. Many of them presented work in machine learning and human-computer interaction, both of which can be applied to my research. I love physics, so I was excited to listen to a lecture from a student who worked on animations and how we can model different objects to move the way they do in the real world. Another student who recently graduated from University of British Columbia presented his research on game design and how we can prevent narrative dissonance in games where the storyline and the action don’t quite mesh. This helped me to envision some future steps on my project where I meld my controller with a descriptive and captivating game.

Overall, my attendance at the conference and the support of the reaffirmed my dedication to my research and helped me align a clear vision of how to make my project effective and engaging for users.

Conference Travel Fund Blog Post by Perri Lomberg
Candidate for Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering ’18