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VR Haptic Jaw

A jaw haptic device that simulates biting into virtual objects in VR/XR experiences.
Skills
Hardware, Unity, VR
Recognition

1st Place of MIT Hardware Track

1st Place of MIT Technology Horizons for Human Interfaces

Grand Finalist MIT Reality Hackathon 2023

Collaborators
Pepi Ng, Eloise Yalovitser, Grace Park, Beatrice Ribeiro
Year
2023
Concept
The current state of VR technology focuses on creating an immersive experience through sight and hearing. However, as of today, there has not been a VR device that stimulates the jaw, even though eating and food are such integral parts of the human experience. At the 2023 MIT Reality Hack, we created a futuristic jaw haptic device that simulates eating in VR. The haptic jaw consists of two parts- an adjustable jaw brace and a harness. The jaw brace is made of aluminum wire and rubber bands, and can be adjusted to fit the facial profile of different users. The jaw brace is then attached to the harness via springs. The tension on the springs can be adjusted via motors. This means that when a user “eats” a particular food item in the XR experience, depending on the texture of the food item, the tension in the springs are adjusted automatically. This simulates the extent of difficulty or ease in chewing different items in an XR experience.
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Technical Aspects

I’llByte was built in Unity 2021.3.16f. When the VR controllers interact with a food item, the program sends a bluetooth message via MIT’s SDK The Singularity. Then the SDK connects with the microcontroller on the back of the harness, which spins the servo motors attached to the front of the harness. As a result, the springs attached to the jaw harness are pulled, creating tension dependent on the VR experience. 3 different tension modes are set up for the prototype VR game, creating 3 different “textures” of foods.

Initial illustration of the hardware device.
Grace testing the haptic jaw during the competition!
Pepi, Eloise, Grace and I when we found out we became Grand Finalists!
Pitching our project to SharkTank while I hold toast and crackers. 🤣