A Soft Fabric-Based Thermal Haptic Device for Virtual Reality

This paper presents a novel fabric-based thermal-haptic interface for virtual reality. It integrates pneumatic actuation and conductive fabric with an innovative ultra-lightweight design, achieving only 2 g for each finger unit. By embedding heating elements within textile pneumatic chambers, the system delivers modulated pressure and thermal stimuli to fingerpads through a fully soft, wearable interface. Comprehensive characterization demonstrates rapid thermal modulation with heating rates up to 3°C/s, enabling dynamic thermal feedback for virtual interactions. The pneumatic subsystem generates forces up to 8.93 N at 50 kPa, while optimization of fingerpad-actuator clearance enhances cooling efficiency with minimal force reduction. Experimental validation conducted with two different user studies shows high temperature identification accuracy (0.98 overall) across three thermal levels and significant manipulation improvements in a virtual pick-and-place task. Results show enhanced success rates (88.5% to 96.4%, p = 0.029) and improved force control precision (p = 0.013) when haptic feedback is enabled, validating the effectiveness of the integrated thermal-haptic approach for advanced human-machine interaction applications.