Systems and methods for creating haptic proxies for use in virtual reality

A method for reconfigurable artifact shape mapping for creating haptic proxies from reconfigurable artifacts, the method comprising:

• providing a haptic reconfigurable artifact toolkit having a set of reconfigurable artifacts of different lengths having multi-piece twistable structures with multiple unified parts that are interlocked into a whole with twistable joints, a set of haptic hardware components, and a haptic reconfigurable artifact software platform configured to facilitate generation of reconfigurable artifact-based haptic proxies using items of the set of reconfigurable artifacts and the set of haptic hardware components;
• generating, through operation of the haptic reconfigurable artifact software platform implementing a process flow applying a rule-based repetitive piece placement algorithm, a reconfigurable artifact shape mapping based on a geometric structure of a three dimensional (3D) model to provide a generated reconfigurable artifact-based shape for use with one or more reconfigurable artifacts of the set of reconfigurable artifacts, wherein the rule-based repetitive piece placement algorithm applies a rule for four types of rotations of pieces of a multi-piece twistable structure of the set of reconfigurable artifacts and determines placement of pieces of the multi-piece twistable structure based on a determination of a placement score for each possible placement of the four types of rotations;
• and
• annotating, using the haptic reconfigurable artifact software platform, on the generated reconfigurable artifact-based shape mapping at least one interactive module of the set of haptic hardware components.

A system for creating haptic proxies for use with respect to virtual reality, the system comprising:

• a set of reconfigurable artifacts comprising a plurality of reconfigurable artifacts of different lengths having multi-piece twistable structures with multiple unified parts that are interlocked into a whole with twistable joints that are configured to be shaped and assembled to represent different objects;
• a set of haptic hardware components comprising tracking hardware, one or more input modules, and one or more output modules;
• and
• a haptic reconfigurable artifact software platform configured to facilitate generation of reconfigurable artifact-based haptic proxies using items of the set of reconfigurable artifacts and the set of haptic hardware components by generating reconfigurable artifact-based shapes based on three dimensional (3D) models, providing guidance for physical construction of reconfigurable artifact-based haptic proxies, and annotating interactive input modules and output modules in the generated reconfigurable artifact-based shapes, wherein the haptic reconfigurable artifact software platform is configured to implement a process flow to generate a reconfigurable artifact shape mapping by applying a rule-based repetitive piece placement algorithm, wherein the rule-based repetitive piece placement algorithm applies a rule for four types of rotations of pieces of a multi-piece twistable structure of the set of reconfigurable artifacts and determines placement of pieces of the multi-piece twistable structure based on a determination of a placement score for each possible placement of the four types of rotations.