Human, Virtual Human, Bump! A Preliminary Study on Haptic Feedback

How does haptic feedback during human-virtual character interaction affect participant physiological responses in virtual reality? In this between-subjects study, haptic feedback and non-haptic feedback conditions in which virtual characters bump into the participant who is immersed in a virtual environment are compared. A questionnaire was developed to determine the influence of haptic feedback on presence, embodiment, positive and negative affect, interaction with virtual characters, and haptic feedback realism, among other more exploratory concepts. These exploratory variables include engagement, flow, comfort with virtual characters, comfort with virtual characters’ appearance, realism of virtual character interaction, realism of haptic feedback, and virtual reality sickness. Physiological data was collected using galvanic skin response (GSR) to investigate the influence of haptic feedback on physiological arousal during human-virtual character interaction. Five conditions were developed (no haptic feedback, full and half intensity, incorrect position, and delayed timing). Significant differences were found in embodiment, realism of virtual character interaction, haptic feedback realism, and GSR amplitude after the first interaction with the virtual character. These results may inform future virtual reality studies that investigate haptic feedback during human-virtual character interaction and/or arousal via GSR data, as well as advise studies that seek to correlate self-report responses with physiological data.

High psychosis liability is associated with altered autonomic balance during exposure to Virtual Reality social stressors

Virtual co-embodiment enables two users to share a single avatar in Virtual Reality (VR). During such experiences, the illusion of shared motion control can break during joint-action activities, highlighting the need for position-aware feedback mechanisms. Drawing on the perceptual crossing paradigm, we explore how haptics can enable non-verbal coordination between co-embodied participants. In a within-subjects study (20 participant pairs), we examined the effects of vibrotactile haptic feedback (None, Present) and avatar control distribution (25-75%, 50-50%, 75-25%) across two VR reaching tasks (Targeted, Free-choice) on participants’ Sense of Agency (SoA), co-presence, body ownership, and motion synchrony. We found (a) lower SoA in the free-choice with haptics than without, (b) higher SoA during the shared targeted task, (c) co-presence and body ownership were significantly higher in the free-choice task, (d) players’ hand motions synchronized more in the targeted task. We provide cautionary considerations when including haptic feedback mechanisms for avatar co-embodiment experiences.

Minimally invasive laparoscopic surgery requires intensive training due to challenges such as loss of haptic feedback and depth perception. Traditional training methods include box trainers (BT), which offer realistic haptic feedback but lack objective performance assessment, and virtual reality (VR) simulators, which provide automated feedback but lack haptic feedback. This review, conducted at the Barts Cancer Institute, Queen Mary University, examines the learning outcomes of VRsimulators with haptic feedback compared to BT. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted following Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines from December 2023 to April 2024. Research databases, such as PubMed, EMBASE, CINAHL, and Web of Science, were searched for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing VR simulators with haptic feedback to BT in training medical students. Seven RCTs met the inclusion criteria, and four were included in the meta-analysis. The primary outcomes were learning curves and learning effectswhile secondary outcomes included skill transfer to a surgical environment. The review analysed data from 125 participants across the studies. Results indicated that BTs demonstrated a superior learning curve, with participants achieving proficiency faster than those using VR. Both simulators showed significant learning effects; however, BTs resulted in greater improvements across more performance parameters. Regarding skill transfer to surgical environments, there was no significant difference between the two groups, suggesting both approaches effectively support surgical skill transfer. Overall, BT has a more effective learning curve and marginally better performance in skill acquisition. While VR with haptic feedback offers enhanced realism, it does not fully replicate the natural haptic feedback provided by BT. Further studies are needed to improve VR haptic feedback and its integration into training programs to enhance learning outcomes.

For educational purposes, virtual reality (VR) is often used to produce life-like experiences. However, the use of haptic feedback in educational practices for science and mathematics remained under-studied. Haptically-enabled science simulations (HESSs) enable students to physically experience the concepts being taught via haptic feedback. We present a study on the effect of a buoyancy HESS designed to aid in the understanding of basic physics concepts. We hypothesize that introducing both visual and haptic feedback of the underlying simulated forces will improve participants understanding. We investigate this hypothesis with a 2 (haptics: yes, no) × 2 (visuals: yes, no) between subjects design user study, where all participants were randomly assigned to one of the four conditions. Participants were given a pretest of buoyancy knowledge, then instructed to interact with the buoyancy simulation, then given a post-test of buoyancy knowledge. The present study is still in the process of data collection, with 40 out of 60 participants. Preliminary results highlight a significant improvement in performance of participants in the haptic-and-visual condition, while no significant differences were observed in other conditions.

Experiencias de realidad virtual, apego y resultados experimentales en turismoPropósitoEl objetivo de este estudio es examinar las relaciones estructurales entre las dimensiones que afectan a la VR: las experiencias (inmersión, interacción, usabilidad e ilusión), las dimensiones del apego (dependencia de VR, identidad de VR, afecto de VR y familiaridad de VR) y las dimensiones de los resultados experimentales (satisfacción experiencial de realidad virtual, lealtad experiencial de realidad virtual y defensa experiencial de realidad virtual).Diseño/metodología/enfoqueSe encuestó a un total de 490 visitantes, que probaron los videojuegos de viaje de 360 VR en TripMoment VR.ResultadosEn este estudio, demuestra la existencia de relaciones positivas entre la satisfacción experimental de la realidad virtual y la inmersión, la interacción, la ilusión, así como la identidad de la realidad virtual, el efecto de la realidad virtual y la familiaridad de la realidad virtual. Además, la satisfacción experiencial, tiene una relación positiva con la lealtad experiencial, en la realidad virtual. Además, la defensa de la experiencia de VR tiene una relación positiva tanto con la satisfacción de la experiencia de VR como con la lealtad de la experiencia de VR.Implicaciones prácticasLos resultados muestran que los operadores turísticos deberían centrarse en aumentar la satisfacción y la lealtad experiencial de la realidad virtual, para permitir que los visitantes tengan intenciones de defender sus experiencias en los contextos de la misma.Originalidad/valorEste trabajo proporciona datos, que conducen a una mejor comprensión de la relación entre las dimensiones de las experiencias de realidad virtual, el apego a la realidad virtual y los resultados experimentales en la industria del turismo.

Haptic communication is a critical communication channel in physical collaboration. However, most studies focus on simplistic tasks with predetermined solutions, restricting the exploration of collaborative behaviors. In this study, we designed a complex task derived from the classic ball-beam control problem, requiring pairs of participants to collaboratively control an unstable object with internal degrees of freedom. The task’s redundant nature allowed diverse strategies and collaboration patterns to emerge. We systematically examined the impact of different sources of haptic feedback, distinguishing between forces arising from the collaborator’s actions and forces arising from the task dynamics. Participants collaborated across five haptic feedback conditions: full haptics, partner only, environment only, no haptics, or unrelated haptics. Haptic feedback significantly enhanced interpersonal coordination, primarily via partner-sourced rather than environment-sourced haptic feedback. Despite equal access to information and mechanical leverage, participants naturally assumed leader-follower roles, which were robustly quantified across multiple metrics. We showed how leadership dynamics evolved throughout the experiment and varied across different haptic conditions. This study advances the understanding of haptic communication, highlighting the value of partner haptics in developing more effective and adaptive strategies for both human-human and human-robot collaboration.

The use of virtual reality technology has become popular in modern theme parks across the world. Attractions using virtual reality technologies offer highly immersive experiences as if people are really staying in fictional worlds that the theme parks like to create. Haptic feedback is an important piece in virtual reality, where it can increase the immersion and enjoyment, but most virtual reality attractions in theme parks do not offer enough haptic feedback. In this paper, we present HapticDaijya, which is a waist-worn robot capable of giving various haptic and tactile feedback on the torso, neck, face, arms and hands. We present the design and implementation of HapticDaijya. Then, we show a user study and analyze the results for investigating its feasibility. Also, we present preliminary evaluation results that gauged the user’s accuracy in distinguishing the locations of taps applied on the chest, as well as general usability and user acceptance.

Visual representations are used in various digitization processes to display objects in immersive environments. In industrial environments, the self-representation can be very helpful when reviewing 3D models to conform realistic proportions, particularly in combi-nation with haptic feedback that goes beyond vibrating controllers. For instance, haptic feedback in combination with a virtual representation supports working on use cases where collision is an important part to maintain data quality. To understand the dependency of both, we conducted a pilot study with 15 users from the automotive sector to examine the influence of upper limb representations on haptic feedback in Virtual Reality. Each participant was assigned with one of three upper limb representations which was used in different scenarios using haptic feedback devices. Overall, we found that the realistic arm representation was rated highest in terms of perceived realism and achieved the best task performance.

Recently a number of TV manufacturers introduced TV remotes with a touchpad which is used for indirect control of TV UI. Users can navigate the UI by moving a finger across the touch pad. However, due to the latency in visual feedback, there is a disconnection between the finger movement on the touchpad and the visual perception in the TV UI, which often causes overshooting. In this paper, we investigate how haptic feedback affects the user experience of the touchpad-based TV remote. We described two haptic prototypes built on the smartphone and Samsung 2013 TV remote respectively. We conducted two user studies with two prototypes to evaluate how the user preference and the user performance been affected. The results show that there is overwhelming support of haptic feedback in terms of subjective user preference, though we didn't find significant difference in performance between with and without haptic feedback conditions.

Rendering haptic feedback on the wrist is an effective solution for freeing users' hands during virtual interactions while still providing haptic feedback, mostly focusing on Virtual Reality (VR) environments. Unfortunately, whether these solutions can be extended to Augmented Reality (AR) interactions has not been investigated before. In this paper, we investigate the perceptual differences between VR and AR environments with a user study experiment based on a stiffness discrimination task. Our findings revealed similar task accuracy and sensitivity in VR and AR but different exploration behaviors (i.e. higher interaction time in AR) and user experience (i.e. higher enjoyment and less mental fatigue in AR). These differences may be explained by the increased cognitive load and the environmental immersion in AR, where users navigate both virtual and real elements simultaneously. This suggests that visuo-haptic psychophysical findings obtained in VR can be extended to AR, even though user experience and exploration behavior might differ.

Having a virtual body can increase embodiment in virtual reality (VR) applications. However, comsumer-grade VR falls short of delivering sufficient sensory information for full-body motion capture. Consequently, most current VR applications do not even show arms, although they are often in the field of view. We address this shortcoming with a novel human upper-body inverse kinematics algorithm specifically targeted at tracking from head and hand sensors only. We present heuristics for elbow positioning depending on the shoulder-to-hand distance and for avoiding reaching unnatural joint limits. Our results show that our method increases the accuracy compared to general inverse kinematics applied to human arms with the same tracking input. In a user study, participants preferred our method over displaying disembodied hands without arms, but also over a more expensive motion capture system. In particular, our study shows that virtual arms animated with our inverse kinematics system can be used for applications involving heavy arm movement. We demonstrate that our method can not only be used to increase embodiment, but can also support interaction involving arms or shoulders, such as holding up a shield.

The ability to track a moving target with the hand has been extensively studied, but few studies have characterized gaze behavior during this task. Here we investigate gaze behavior when participants learn a new mapping between hand and cursor motion, such that the cursor represented the position of a virtual mass attached to the grasped handle via a virtual spring. Depending on the experimental condition, haptic feedback consistent with mass-spring dynamics could also be provided. For comparison a simple one-to-one hand-cursor mapping was also tested. We hypothesized that gaze would be drawn, at times, to the cursor in the mass-spring conditions, especially in the absence of haptic feedback. As expected hand tracking performance was less accurate under the spring mapping, but gaze behavior was virtually unaffected by the spring mapping, regardless of whether haptic feedback was provided. Specifically, relative gaze position between target and cursor, rate of saccades, and gain of smooth pursuit were similar under both mappings and both haptic feedback conditions. We conclude that even when participants are exposed to a challenging hand-cursor mapping, gaze is primarily concerned about ongoing target motion suggesting that peripheral vision is sufficient to monitor cursor position and to update hand movement control.

PurposeWe describe two case studies that use embodiment in virtual reality as a treatment for chronic low back pain. The purpose of this case series was to determine the feasibility of a novel virtual reality-based digital therapeutic for the treatment of chronic pain.Patients and MethodsTwo patients with chronic low back pain received seven sessions, two sessions per week, of a novel digital therapeutic that combines virtual embodiment with graded motor imagery to deliver functional rehabilitation exercises using an off-the-shelf virtual reality system. Pain intensity was measured using a visual analog scale before and after each session to get an indication whether individual sessions of virtual embodiment training decrease pain intensity. Pain catastrophizing scale was assessed before the first session and after the seventh session to determine the extent to which virtual embodiment training can improve psychological symptoms of chronic low back pain.ResultsIn both patients, pain intensity was improved after individual sessions of virtual embodiment training as measured by a paired t-test: (Patient A: t = 2.890, P < 0.05) and (Patient B: t = 5.346, P < 0.005). This indicates that individual sessions of virtual embodiment training decrease pain intensity. In both patients, improvements were observed in three subscales of the pain catastrophizing scale (rumination, magnification, and helplessness). This indicates that virtual embodiment training may have benefits for chronic pain symptoms such as pain intensity, pain-related mobility impairment, and disability.ConclusionThis case series provides evidence that embodiment in virtual reality improves symptoms of persistent chronic low back pain. We propose a mechanism by which virtual embodiment may improve chronic pain symptoms by recontextualizing sensory feedback from the body as patients engage in functional rehabilitation exercises while in virtual reality.

Enhancing VR experience with RBF interpolation based dynamic tuning of stereoscopic rendering