A Full Body Steerable Wind Display for a Locomotion Interface

Kulkarni, Sandip D and Fisher, Charles J and Lefler, Price and Desai, Aditya and Chakravarthy, Shanthanu and Pardyjak, Eric R and Minor, Mark A and Hollerbach, John M (2015) A Full Body Steerable Wind Display for a Locomotion Interface. In: IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS, 21 (10). pp. 1146-1159.

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Abstract

This paper presents the Treadport Active Wind Tunnel (TPAWT)-a full-body immersive virtual environment for the Treadport locomotion interface designed for generating wind on a user from any frontal direction at speeds up to 20 kph. The goal is to simulate the experience of realistic wind while walking in an outdoor virtual environment. A recirculating-type wind tunnel was created around the pre-existing Treadport installation by adding a large fan, ducting, and enclosure walls. Two sheets of air in a non-intrusive design flow along the side screens of the back-projection CAVE-like visual display, where they impinge and mix at the front screen to redirect towards the user in a full-body cross-section. By varying the flow conditions of the air sheets, the direction and speed of wind at the user are controlled. Design challenges to fit the wind tunnel in the pre-existing facility, and to manage turbulence to achieve stable and steerable flow, were overcome. The controller performance for wind speed and direction is demonstrated experimentally.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Publication:	IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON VISUALIZATION AND COMPUTER GRAPHICS
Publisher:	IEEE COMPUTER SOC
Additional Information:	Copy right for this article belongs to the IEEE COMPUTER SOC, 10662 LOS VAQUEROS CIRCLE, PO BOX 3014, LOS ALAMITOS, CA 90720-1314 USA
Keywords:	Artificial; augmented; and virtual realities; environments; user interfaces
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Mechanical Engineering
Date Deposited:	01 Oct 2015 04:29
Last Modified:	01 Oct 2015 04:29
URI:	http://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/52470

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