Effect of Haptic Feedback on the Perceived Size of a Virtual Object

Abstract

We investigate how different types of haptic feedback to hand affect the perceived size of a virtual object. Multiple haptic interfaces are designed to deliver different types of haptic feedback to hand. In the preliminary experiment, we investigated the effect of cutaneous feedback on the perceived size of the virtual object. The experimental results indicate that the availability of cutaneous feedback resulted in an insignificant effect on the perceived size of the virtual object. On the other hand, the availability of cutaneous feedback led the participants to exert significantly smaller grip force than when there is only force feedback. In the main experiment, we provided haptic feedback to the dorsum of the hand to modulate the hand kinesthesia at the moment of contact with the virtual object. For the reference stimuli, skin-stretch or vibrotactile feedback was provided to a participant's hand along with cutaneous and force feedback to the fingertips. Reference stimuli were rendered only with cutaneous and force feedback to the fingers. The experimental results indicate a significant effect of the type of haptic feedback to the dorsum of a hand. The skin-stretch feedback led the participants to feel virtual objects with a size of 40 mm, larger than without the feedback. The vibrotactile feedback resulted in the perceived size of virtual objects with a size of 20 or 40 mm, smaller than without the vibrotactile feedback.