Length Perception Model for Handheld Controllers: The Effects of Diameter and Inertia

Typical handheld controllers for interaction in virtual reality (VR) have fixed shapes and sizes, regardless of what visual objects they represent. Resolving this crossmodal incongruence with a shape-changing interface is our long-term goal. In this paper, we seek to find a length perception model that considers the moment of inertia (MOI) and diameter of a handheld object based on the concept of dynamic touch. Such models serve as a basis for computational algorithms for shape changing. We carried out two perceptual experiments. In Experiment 1, we measured the perceived lengths of 24 physical objects with different MOIs and diameters. Then we obtained a length perception model to reproduce the desired perceived length with a handheld controller. In Experiment 2, we validated our model in a crossmodal matching scenario, where a visual rod was matched to a haptic rod in terms of the perceived length. Our results contribute to understanding the relationship between the perceived length and physical properties of a handheld object and designing shape-changing algorithms to render equivalent visual and haptic sensory cues for length perception in VR.