The emergence of off-screen interaction devices is bringing the field of virtual reality to a broad range of applications where virtual objects can be manipulated without the use of traditional peripherals. However, to facilitate object interaction, other stimuli such as haptic feedback are necessary to improve the user experience. To enable the identification of virtual 3D objects without visual feedback, a haptic display based on a vibrotactile glove and multiple points of contact gives users an enhanced sensation of touching a virtual object with their hands. Experimental results demonstrate the capacity of this technology in practical applications.

The use of haptics in virtual reality and video games has received growing attention as a means of enhancing the sensation of immersion in these environments. The sensation of touching virtual objects not only augments the impression of reality but also can improve the performance. However, the design of haptic interactions is not an easy task, and it usually needs a great effort due to the absence of powerful prototyping toolkits. Thus, this article proposes a vibrotactile prototyping toolkit for Eccentric Rotating Mass actuators named VITAKI. The main objective of this platform is to facilitate the prototyping and testing procedures of new vibrotactile interaction techniques for Virtual Reality and video games. A detailed description of the design of the system is provided, presenting the hardware and software elements that make up the VITAKI toolkit. In addition, its application to two different examples to illustrate its use is provided. Finally, a preliminary evaluation of this toolkit is presented. This evaluation is divided into two main stages. On one hand, a study of Olsen’s criteria is performed to analyze its general capabilities. On the other hand, a comparison with previously presented proposals is included too. These two analyses, together with other experiments where the devices created with the toolkit were tested by end users, highlight its main features and its advantages over other proposals.

Higher life expectancy is increasing the number of age-related cognitive impairment cases. It is also relevant, as some authors claim, that physical exercise may be considered as an adjunctive therapy to improve cognition and memory after strokes. Thus, the integration of physical and cognitive therapies could offer potential benefits. In addition, in general these therapies are usually considered boring, so it is important to include some features that improve the motivation of patients. As a result, computer-assisted cognitive rehabilitation systems and serious games for health are more and more present. In order to achieve a continuous, efficient and sustainable rehabilitation of patients, they will have to be carried out as part of the rehabilitation in their own home. However, current home systems lack the therapist’s presence, and this leads to two major challenges for such systems. First, they need sensors and actuators that compensate for the absence of the therapist’s eyes and hands. Second, the system needs to capture and apply the therapist’s expertise. With this aim, and based on our previous proposals, we propose an ambient intelligence environment for cognitive rehabilitation at home, combining physical and cognitive activities, by implementing a Fuzzy Inference System (FIS) that gathers, as far as possible, the knowledge of a rehabilitation expert. Moreover, smart sensors and actuators will attempt to make up for the absence of the therapist. Furthermore, the proposed system will feature a remote monitoring tool, so that the therapist can supervise the patients’ exercises. Finally, an evaluation will be presented where experts in the rehabilitation field showed their satisfaction with the proposed system.

This paper seeks to determine how the overlap of several infrared beams affects the tracked position of the user, depending on the angle of incidence of li