Scroll VR

A scroll module for VR controller

ATLAS Institute, Boulder

May 2024

Enhancing the VR menu navigation experience has been a challenge due to the cumbersome task of continuously holding down a trigger button while dragging through menus. To address this, I developed the Scroll VR module for the Meta Quest 2 controller. This innovative attachment offers a touch screen-like scrolling experience within the VR environment. Utilizing a combination of multi-material 3D printing, copper tape, an ESP8266 microcontroller, and a battery, the Scroll VR module simplifies menu navigation and interaction. In this project, I also present two potential applications: effortless menu scrolling and intuitive adjustment of virtual object sizes.

Circuit

The circuit for the four patches is identical. It is a simple DIY capacitive touch sensor.

Fabrication

I went through three iterations. I tried with conductive paint, wire, copper tape and conductive filament. The final version was designed with a multi-material 3D print that involves conductive filament and normal PLA.

Communication

The adafruit Feather Huzzah uses an ESP8266 chip so it can communicate with other devices through WIFI. In this project, I used the UDP protocol to send the status of the patches when there is a change. For example, when the user touches the third patch, the microcontroller senses it and sends a (2, 1) signal. 2 refers to the third patch and 1 means it is being touched.