Horizontal Plane Haptic Redirection: Realizing Haptic Feedback for the Virtual Inclined Plane in VR.

Area of Science:

• Virtual Reality
• Haptic Feedback
• Human-Computer Interaction

Background:

• Interactions on inclined planes in virtual environments require corresponding real-world haptic feedback for enhanced user immersion.
• Finding exact real-world inclined planes to match virtual ones is challenging and often impractical.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and evaluate a novel horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme for virtual inclined plane interactions.
• To enable users to experience haptic feedback from virtual inclined planes using readily available real-world horizontal planes.

Main Methods:

• Developed an integrated solution using the Vive Pro headset to locate real horizontal planes and implement haptic redirection.
• Conducted a user study to determine the angle and size thresholds for effective horizontal plane haptic redirection.
• Compared the proposed redirection scheme against baseline conditions (no redirection, no haptic feedback).

Main Results:

• Established thresholds for horizontal plane haptic redirection: 20° for angle and 88% for size.
• Found that exceeding these redirection thresholds significantly reduces user operation efficiency.
• Demonstrated the validity and necessity of the haptic redirection scheme through comparative experiments.

Conclusions:

• The horizontal plane haptic redirection scheme effectively provides haptic feedback for virtual inclined plane interactions.
• The identified thresholds are crucial for maintaining user performance and immersion in virtual environments.
• This approach offers a practical solution for enhancing haptic experiences in virtual reality using accessible real-world surfaces.