2026-07-23T06:46:02Z https://drops.dagstuhl.de/oai

oai:drops-oai.dagstuhl.de:23995 2025-12-12T15:06:33Z ddc:004 open_access

VibroLink: A Wireless Vibro-Auditory Transmission System to Improve Situational Awareness During EVA Vega, Gabriela Strohmeier, Paul haptics extravehicular activity situational awareness On earth, technicians rely on auditory or haptic cues, such as engine sounds and vibration, for a tacit understanding of complex machinery and its status. However, such vibrational cues are absent in space, potentially leaving astronauts unaware of safety-critical information about environmental changes during extravehicular activities (EVAs). This work-in-progress paper presents vibroLink, a concept for a standalone system designed to enhance situational awareness in spacewalks by wirelessly transmitting audio and vibration cues from machinery to the astronaut. Our approach employs a modular, two-component system: a transmitter (sensing) unit equipped with a piezo sensor that detects vibrations from machinery or other critical sources and a receiver unit with a vibrotactile actuator that can be attached, for example, to the astronaut’s helmet to replicate the detected vibrations. A preliminary evaluation with a proof-of-concept prototype shows that our concept successfully transmits basic tactile cues, and naive users can leverage their tacit understanding of actions and materiality to identify how the cues originated. Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik Gabriela Vega and Paul Strohmeier 2025 Is Part Of OASIcs, Volume 130, Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025) InProceedings Text doc-type:ResearchArticle publishedVersion application/pdf doi:10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5 urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-239955 https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5 eng https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/legalcode