InfinitePaint: Painting in Virtual Reality with Passive Haptics Using Wet Brushes and a Physical Proxy Canvas

Andreas Fender, Thomas Roberts, Tiffany Luong, and Christian Holz.

Proceedings of ACM CHI 2023.

Video

Publication

Andreas Fender, Thomas Roberts, Tiffany Luong, and Christian Holz. InfinitePaint: Painting in Virtual Reality with Passive Haptics Using Wet Brushes and a Physical Proxy Canvas. In Proceedings of ACM CHI 2023.

Teaser

InfinitePaint teaser image

We present InfinitePaint. a) A Virtual Reality user paints with a real wet brush on special paper that temporarily turns black upon contact with water and turns blank again when dry. b) Our system digitizes newly added strokes and renders them persistently with the chosen color and opacity in the virtual environment. c) Users can create complete digital paintings with the haptic experience of brushes on paper without using up art materials and with digital capabilities enabled.

Abstract

Digital painting interfaces require an input fidelity that preserves the artistic expression of the user. Drawing tablets allow for precise and low-latency sensing of pen motions and other parameters like pressure to convert them to fully digitized strokes. A drawback is that those interfaces are rigid. While soft brushes can be simulated in software, the haptic sensation of the rigid pen input device is different compared to using a soft wet brush on paper. We present InfinitePaint, a system that supports digital painting in Virtual Reality on real paper with a real wet brush. We use special paper that turns black wherever it comes into contact with water and turns blank again upon drying. A single camera captures those temporary strokes and digitizes them while applying properties like color or other digital effects. We tested our system with artists and compared the subjective experience with a drawing tablet.