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DOI: 10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5

VibroLink: A Wireless Vibro-Auditory Transmission System to Improve Situational Awareness During EVA

Authors: Gabriela Vega and Paul Strohmeier

Published in: OASIcs, Volume 130, Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025)

Abstract

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.

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Gabriela Vega and Paul Strohmeier. VibroLink: A Wireless Vibro-Auditory Transmission System to Improve Situational Awareness During EVA. In Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025). Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs), Volume 130, pp. 5:1-5:9, Schloss Dagstuhl – Leibniz-Zentrum für Informatik (2025)

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@InProceedings{vega_et_al:OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5,
  author =	{Vega, Gabriela and Strohmeier, Paul},
  title =	{{VibroLink: A Wireless Vibro-Auditory Transmission System to Improve Situational Awareness During EVA}},
  booktitle =	{Advancing Human-Computer Interaction for Space Exploration (SpaceCHI 2025)},
  pages =	{5:1--5:9},
  series =	{Open Access Series in Informatics (OASIcs)},
  ISBN =	{978-3-95977-384-3},
  ISSN =	{2190-6807},
  year =	{2025},
  volume =	{130},
  editor =	{Bensch, Leonie and Nilsson, Tommy and Nisser, Martin and Pataranutaporn, Pat and Schmidt, Albrecht and Sumini, Valentina},
  publisher =	{Schloss Dagstuhl -- Leibniz-Zentrum f{\"u}r Informatik},
  address =	{Dagstuhl, Germany},
  URL =		{https://drops.dagstuhl.de/entities/document/10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5},
  URN =		{urn:nbn:de:0030-drops-239955},
  doi =		{10.4230/OASIcs.SpaceCHI.2025.5},
  annote =	{Keywords: haptics, extravehicular activity, situational awareness}
}

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VibroLink: A Wireless Vibro-Auditory Transmission System to Improve Situational Awareness During EVA

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