The current state of VR technology focuses on creating an immersive experience through sight, hearing and taste. 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. With such an obvious gap in the VR industry, we decided to take on the challenge.
We created a futuristic jaw haptic device that 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.
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 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.