Pseudo-Haptic Feedback: Multi-Modal Approaches to Stiffness Perception and User Experience

Pseudo-haptics is a technique that creates the illusion of haptic sensations in virtual environments by leveraging visual feedback and the interplay between visual and haptic perception. Pseudo-haptic feedback can enhance virtual reality interactions by providing perceptual cues that substitute for or complement physical haptic feedback. This work extends a 3D deformation rendering approach to generate visual deformation cues for stiffness perception in virtual reality and evaluates their impact on user experience through a user study measuring presence and workload. Results from a user study ( $n=20$ ) indicate that deformation cues support stiffness perception at levels comparable to physical haptic feedback in both objective and subjective measures. Combining pseudo-haptic and force feedback further enhances stiffness perception accuracy and presence without increasing workload. These findings demonstrate that well-designed pseudo-haptic feedback mechanisms can effectively complement or substitute for force feedback in virtual reality interactions.