Ungrounded Vari-Dimensional Tactile Fingertip Feedback for Virtual Object Interaction
Compared to grounded force feedback, providing tactile feedback via a wearable device can free the user and broaden the potential applications of simulated physical interactions. However, neither the limitations nor the full potential of tactile-only feedback have been precisely examined. Here we investigate how the dimensionality of cutaneous fingertip feedback affects user movements and virtual object recognition. We combine a recently invented 6-DOF fingertip device with motion tracking, a head-mounted display, and novel contact-rendering algorithms to enable a user to tactilely explore immersive virtual environments. We evaluate rudimentary 1-DOF, moderate 3-DOF, and complex 6-DOF tactile feedback during shape discrimination and mass discrimination, also comparing to interactions with real objects. Results from 20 naive study participants show that higher-dimensional tactile feedback may indeed allow completion of a wider range of virtual tasks, but that feedback dimensionality surprisingly does not greatly affect the exploratory techniques employed by the user.
| Author(s): | Eric M. Young and Katherine J. Kuchenbecker |
| Book Title: | Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems |
| Number (issue): | 217 |
| Pages: | 1--14 |
| Year: | 2021 |
| Month: | May |
| Project(s): | |
| BibTeX Type: | Conference Paper (inproceedings) |
| Address: | Yokohama, Japan |
| DOI: | 10.1145/3411764.3445369 |
| State: | Published |
| Electronic Archiving: | grant_archive |
BibTeX
@inproceedings{Young21-CHI-Virtual,
title = {Ungrounded Vari-Dimensional Tactile Fingertip Feedback for Virtual Object Interaction},
booktitle = {Proceedings of the ACM CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems},
abstract = {Compared to grounded force feedback, providing tactile feedback via a wearable device can free the user and broaden the potential applications of simulated physical interactions. However, neither the limitations nor the full potential of tactile-only feedback have been precisely examined. Here we investigate how the dimensionality of cutaneous fingertip feedback affects user movements and virtual object recognition. We combine a recently invented 6-DOF fingertip device with motion tracking, a head-mounted display, and novel contact-rendering algorithms to enable a user to tactilely explore immersive virtual environments. We evaluate rudimentary 1-DOF, moderate 3-DOF, and complex 6-DOF tactile feedback during shape discrimination and mass discrimination, also comparing to interactions with real objects. Results from 20 naive study participants show that higher-dimensional tactile feedback may indeed allow completion of a wider range of virtual tasks, but that feedback dimensionality surprisingly does not greatly affect the exploratory techniques employed by the user.},
number = {217},
pages = {1--14},
address = {Yokohama, Japan},
month = may,
year = {2021},
author = {Young, Eric M. and Kuchenbecker, Katherine J.},
doi = {10.1145/3411764.3445369},
month_numeric = {5}
}