If you’re looking to embrace your inner catgirl or catboy, yet sticking on a pair of ears you bought at your local anime convention just doesn’t seem enough, you’re lucky, because a group of researchers from Japan’s Keio University and Tokyo University have already gotten down to business to help your dream come true. In a study published this year, they showcased a device which can be used to fulfill the most basic need of any catgirl or catboy – having a pair cat ears that actually feel like they’re yours.
As ITmedia reports, catgirls and catboys, alongside other anthropoid characters endowed with animal features, currently make up around 47% of the population on virtual reality platforms. In spite of it, there haven’t been many technological advancements that could enhance the feeling of immersion for almost half the dwellers of the virtual world – that is, until now.
Inspired by studies focusing on augmenting the human body – attaching additional body parts in order to enhance its capabilities, the aforementioned research team decided to take this idea one step further and turn virtual body parts into something you could feel in real life.
They utilized BioMetal Fiber (BMF), a type of shape memory alloy, to develop soft actuators that could mimic the sensation of having cat ears on your head. The actuators are sets of silicone tubes with BMF inserted; The BMF reacts to temperature changes and bends the tubes. The actuators are attached to a head-mounted display, and are propped against the user’s hair – so when your “cat ears” are stroked in VR, the actuators deliver synchronized haptic feedback through the hair, simulating the sensation of having a real pair of cat ears on top of your head.
A number of experiments were conducted in order to test this device – participants were put in different scenarios, with the device being turned on and off for comparison while the participants cat ears were stimulated in virtual reality. They were also presented with situations of danger, in which a virtual knife would cut through the ears of the participants’ avatar, and their physiological and emotional responses were recorded. After the experiment, many of them reported that when the device was turned on, they were able to feel as if the virtual cat ears were an extension of their own body. But, as it usually is with your dreams being turned into reality, it doesn’t always turn out how you imagined it to be – namely, some of the participants complained that the “cat ears” on their head just weren’t soft enough.
