Electrotactile Feedback For Enhancing Contact Information in Virtual Reality

Sebastian Vizcay (1) , Panagiotis Kourtesis (1) , Ferran Argelaguet Sanz (1) , Claudio Pacchierotti (2) , Maud Marchal (2)

1 Hybrid - 3D interaction with virtual environments using body and mind
2 RAINBOW - Sensor-based and interactive robotics

This paper presents a wearable electrotactile feedback system to enhance contact information for mid-air interactions with virtual objects. In particular, we propose the use of electrotactile feedback to render the interpenetration distance between the user's finger and the virtual content is touched. Our approach consists of modulating the perceived intensity (frequency and pulse width modulation) of the electrotactile stimuli according to the registered interpenetration distance. In a user study (N=21), we assessed the performance of four different interpenetration feedback approaches: electrotactile-only, visual-only, electrotactile and visual, and no interpenetration feedback. First, the results showed that contact precision and accuracy were significantly improved when using interpenetration feedback. Second, and more interestingly, there were no significant differences between visual and electrotactile feedback when the calibration was optimized and the user was familiarized with electrotactile feedback. Taken together, these results suggest that electrotactile feedback could be an efficient replacement of visual feedback for enhancing contact information in virtual reality avoiding the need of active visual focus and the rendering of additional visual artefacts.

Mots clés: Virtual reality; electrotactile feedback; human computer interaction; haptic interface

Domaines: Interface homme-machine [cs.HC]

Sebastian Vizcay, Panagiotis Kourtesis, Ferran Argelaguet Sanz, Claudio Pacchierotti, Maud Marchal. Electrotactile Feedback For Enhancing Contact Information in Virtual Reality. ICAT-EGVE 2021 - International Conference on Artificial Reality and Telexistence and Eurographics Symposium on Virtual Environments, Sep 2021, Sankt Augustin, Germany. ⟨10.2312/egve.20211331⟩. ⟨hal-03350039⟩