Pressure Sensitive Virtual Reality Controller

Leslie Jenkins, Hunter Carter, and Matthew Tilton developed an input device to capture hand movement for a virtual reality controller.

The controller was part of an undergraduate research project undertaken by the trio to develop a pressure sensitive VR controller.  Their idea was to look at VR controllers from a different angle where rather than the player using their full body in a virtual world in a limited space, they wanted to come up with a controller that would trick the player into feeling like they are naturally moving from applying force to the controller and seeing that force being applied to objects in the virtual world. The prototype controller was made with some acrylic sheets, foam, some force sensitive resistors, and a Teensy 3.6.

The team’s write up on the project with their results is available on this project page.