With the increase in popularity of virtual reality (VR) systems, haptic devices have been garnering interest as means of augmenting users' immersion and experiences in VR. Unfortunately, most commercial gloves available on the market are targeted towards enterprise and research, and are too expensive to be accessible to the average consumer for entertainment. Some efforts have been made by gaming and do-it-yourself (DIY) enthusiasts to develop cheap, accessible haptic gloves, but due to cost limitations, the designs are often simple and only provide feedback at the fingertips. Considering the many types of grasps used by humans to interact with objects, it is evident that haptic gloves must offer feedback to many regions of the hand, such as the palm and lengths of the fingers to provide more realistic feedback. This thesis discusses a novel, affordable design that provides haptic feedback to the intermediate and proximal phalanges of the fingers (index, middle, ring and pinkie) using a ratchet and pawl actuation mechanism. / Master of Science / Haptics, or simulation of the sense of touch, is already implemented in consumer devices such as smartphones and gaming controllers to augment users' immersive experiences. With the growing popularity of virtual reality, further advancements are being made, particularly in wearable haptic gloves, so users may physically feel the interactions with objects in virtual reality through their hands. Unfortunately, these products are currently inaccessible to the average consumer due to unaffordable pricing. To combat this issue, there have been efforts to develop cheap haptic gloves, but existing designs only provide feedback at the fingertips. Fingertip-only feedback can feel unnatural to users since other areas of the hand are typically also involved when grasping objects. To address the issue presented by low-cost fingertip haptic gloves, this thesis proposes a design which expands feedback to other areas of the hand while maintaining affordability and accessibility to average consumers.

Is it a dream came true for you to experience a Virtual Reality (VR) and be able to touch virtual objects and manipulate them with your bare hands? The recent growth of the Virtual Reality market resulted in an intensification of the development of the haptics gloves technology. The newly haptics gloves, Bebop gloves launched and commercialized recently which will use for this study. Earlier research has explored a range of haptics effects mainly on VR surgery or gaming. Yet, VR industrial training has gradually received attention in recent years. Creating multiple scenarios in the virtual scene is not only cost-effective but also increases safety and reduces training time. However, not many research studies have explored using haptic gloves in the VR industrial training environment. This study tries to complement earlier research by investigating usability and user performance using bebop vibration gloves in VR industrial training. The purposes were to provide a usability review of bebop gloves and explored the effect of haptics in VR industrial training. Three different haptics settings (Non-haptics, Partial haptics, and Full-haptics) were being set up. Eighteen users were then recruited to try randomly two haptics settings. Each user had to complete a five steps VR industrial training task while “thinking aloud”, followed by questionnaires and interviews after the task. The error and time recorded for each training step. These results confirmed several conclusions drawn in earlier research about how the haptics affect user performance in the VR environment, as well as how the behavior changes when using the haptics gloves in a VR environment. Last but not least the results also pointed to the importance of vibration haptics benefits in small-scale actions and provide the user with an interpersonal confirmation. / Är det en dröm som förverkligades för dig att uppleva en virtuell verklighet (VR) och kunna röra virtuella objekt och manipulera dem med bara händer? Den senaste tillväxten av marknaden för Virtual Reality resulterade i en intensifiering av utvecklingen av haptikhandskar-tekniken. De nyligen haptiska handskarna, Bebophandskar lanserade och kommersialiserades nyligen som kommer att användas för denna studie. Tidigare forskning har undersökt en rad haptiska effekter främst på VR-kirurgi eller spel. Ändå har VR-industriell utbildning gradvis fått uppmärksamhet under de senaste åren. Att skapa flera scenarier i den virtuella scenen är inte bara kostnadseffektivt utan ökar också säkerheten och minskar tiden. Men inte många forskningsstudier har undersökt användning av haptiska handskar i VR: s industriella utbildningsmiljö. Denna studie försöker komplettera tidigare forskning genom att undersöka användbarhet och användarprestanda med hjälp av bebop-vibrationshandskar i VR-industriutbildning. Syftena var att tillhandahålla en användbarhetsgranskning av bebop-handskar och utforska effekten av haptik i VR-industriutbildningen. Tre olika haptikinställningar (Non-haptics, Partial haptics och Full-haptics) inställdes. Atten användare rekryterades sedan för att testa slumpmässigt två haptikinställningar. Varje användare måste genomföra en femstegs VR-industriell träningsuppgift medan han ”tänker högt”, följt av frågeformulär och intervjuer efter uppgiften. Felet och tiden som registrerats för varje träningssteg. Dessa resultat bekräftade flera slutsatser som dragits i tidigare forskning om hur haptiken påverkar användarnas prestanda i VR-miljön, liksom hur beteendet förändras när man använder haptikhandskarna i en VR-miljö. Sist men inte minst pekade resultaten också på vikten av fördelar med vibrationshaptik i småskaliga åtgärder och ger användaren en interpersonell bekräftelse.