Tangible Tactical Belt: Haptic Realism for Virtual Reality Police Training

Virtual reality is becoming increasingly relevant in first-responder training. Especially in police scenario training, virtual environments offer safe and efficient training possibilities compared to real-world training. Important aspects are the accurate simulation of real contexts and real tools, enabling the realistic behavior of police officers. An essential aspect for police officers in their daily routine is the tactical belt. The tactical belt supports police officers in their daily tasks and missions with the most essential tools such as a torch, service weapon, pepper spray, and handcuffs. Thus realistic haptic and visualization of the tactical police belt in the virtual training environment is an important aspect for immersion and realism of the training. Our work describes the design process and evaluation of a tactical belt replica for VR police training. The associated tools were intended as multi-sensory elements for virtual police training to improve immersion and realism. We further identify relevant interaction paradigms for the tactical belt for VR training.