Abstract
This paper proposes a novel baseball pitch training software design to interact with a virtual object in a virtual reality or augmented reality environment by combining a Unity game engine and a digital glove. An embedded microcontroller unit with a communication interface in the digital glove collects sensory data, including mechanical physical limit feedback, electric shock tactile feedback, finger-bending sensations, and three-dimensional spatial positioning, then interacts with the Unity game engine and HTC Vive through a personal computer. The user thereby experiences the sensation of holding an object in virtual reality. Autodesk Maya software is used to design a baseball pitch training mainframe with modeling and animation. The Unity game engine can load baseball pitching scenarios and create a three-dimensional virtual reality stream that is sent to an HTC Vive headset. To seamlessly complete the data exchange between the digital glove and the Unity engine, we use a shared memory mechanism designed with the C# Windows program. The embedded C# script design within the Unity game engine plays an important interactive role between virtual reality scenes and the digital glove. Our experimental results showed that players received physical feedback when touching virtual objects. The proposed design has potential for application in medical rehabilitation and physical training.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Arkenbout EA, Winter JCF, Breedveld P (2015) Robust hand motion tracking through data fusion of 5DT data glove and nimble VR kinect camera measurements. Sensors 15(12):31644–31671
Aroca RV, Inoue RS, Pedro LM, Caurin GAP, Magalhaes DV (2015) Towards a battery-free wireless smart glove for rehabilitation applications based on RFID. In: 2015 IEEE Brasil RFID, Sao Paulo, Brazil, October 7–8, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1109/brasilrfid.2015.7523839
Bouzit M, Burdea G, Popescu G, Boian R (2002) The rutgers master II—new design force-feedback glove. IEEE/ASME Trans Mechatron 7:256–263
Camporesi C, Kallmann M (2013) A framework for immersive VR and full-body avatar interaction. In: 2013 IEEE virtual reality, Orlando, Florida, USA, March 18–20, 2013
Dietrich C, Koop D, Vo H T, Silva C T (2014) Baseball4D: a tool for baseball game reconstruction and visualization. In: 2014 IEEE conference on visual analytics science and technology, Paris, France, October 25–31, 2014. https://doi.org/10.1109/vast.2014.7042478
Eutsler B, Gaertner J, Pollino E, Robinson N, Moges M (2015) Virtual reality glove. In: 2015 ASEE gulf-southwest annual conference, El Paso, Texas, USA, April 4–6, 2015
Fink PW, Foo PS, Warren WH (2009) Catching fly balls in virtual reality: a critical test of the outfielder problem. J Vis 9(14):1–8. https://doi.org/10.1167/9.13.14
Gallo L, Minutolo A, Pietro GD (2010) A user interface for VR-ready 3D medical imaging by off-the-shelf input devices. Comput Biol Med 40:350–358
Huang L, Pei Y (2010) Film and television design based on Maya and AE. In: 2010 3rd international congress on image and signal processing, Yantai, China, October 16–18, 2010. https://doi.org/10.1109/cisp.2010.5646354
Kao CH, Chen CC, Jhu WY, Tsai YT, Chen SH, Hsu CM, Chen CY (2018) Novel digital glove design for virtual reality application. Microsyst Technol 24:4247–4266. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-018-3747-z
Kolesnyk K, Panchak R, Pylypenko V, Abliazizov I, Fedosyeyev O, Ferens R (2017) Managing robot kinematics based on Arduino controllers using a Unity system. In: 2017 13th international conference on perspective technologies and methods in MEMS design, Lviv, Ukraine, April 20–23, 2017
Kommu A, Kanchi RR (2014) Designing a learning platform for the implement of serial standards using ARM microcontroller LPC2148. In: IEEE international conference on recent advances and innovations in engineering, Jaipur, India, May 09–11, 2014
Larson L, Semwal S K (2016) Creating 3D avatars from artistic drawing for VR and games applications. In: 2016 future technologies conference, San Francisco, California, USA, December 6–7, 2016. https://doi.org/10.1109/ftc.2016.7821739
Li C, Yin C, Lu J, Ma L (2009) Automatic 3D scene generation based on MAYA. In: IEEE 10th international conference computer-aided industrial design and conceptual design, Wenzhou, China, November 26–29, 2009. https://doi.org/10.1109/caidcd.2009.5375246
Mois G, Folea S, Sanislav T (2017) Analysis of three IoT-based wireless sensors for environmental monitoring. IEEE Trans Instrum Meas 66:2056–2064. https://doi.org/10.1109/TIM.2017.2677619
Palamar T. (2016) Mastering Autodesk Maya 2016: Autodesk Official Press, Sybex Inc
Pamungkas DS, Ward K (2016) Electro-tactile feedback system to enhance virtual reality experience. Int J Comput Theory Eng 8(6):465–470
Park J, Kim J H, Kim S H (2011) The initiative design to combine real bats and balls with online baseball contents. In: 7th international conference on networked computing, Gyeongsangbuk-do, South Korea, September 26–28, 2011
Polančeć D, Mekterović I (2017) Developing MOBA games using the Unity game engine. In: 2017 40th international convention on information and communication technology, electronics and microelectronics, Opatija, Croatia, May 22–26, 2017. https://doi.org/10.23919/mipro.2017.7973661
Portillo-Rodriguez O, Avizzano C A, Sotgiu E, Pabon S, Frisoli A, Ortiz J, Bergamasco M (2007) A wireless bluetooth dataglove based on a novel goniometric sensors. In: 16th IEEE international symposium on robot and human interactive communication, Jeju, South Korea, August 26–29, 2007
Ryu J, Kim Y, Wang H O, Kim D H (2014) Wireless control of a board robot using a sensing glove. In: 11th international conference on ubiquitous robots and ambient intelligence, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 12–15 Nov 2014
Varona J, Buades JM, Perales FJ (2005) Hands and face tracking for VR applications. Comput Graph 29:179–187
Zaal FTJM, Bootsma RJ (2011) Virtual reality as a tool for the study of perception-action: the case of running to catch fly balls. Presence 20(1):93–103. https://doi.org/10.1162/pres_a_00037
Zhao J, Xue C, Tao J, Ranjan R, Kołodziej J, Wang L, Chen D (2017) Trusted performance analysis on systems with a shared memory. IEEE Syst J 11:272–282. https://doi.org/10.1109/JSYST.2014.2365234
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Tsai, YT., Jhu, WY., Chen, CC. et al. Unity game engine: interactive software design using digital glove for virtual reality baseball pitch training. Microsyst Technol 27, 1401–1417 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04302-9
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00542-019-04302-9