Temperature vs Heat Flow: How Thermal Control Modality Influences Perception and Haptic Experience in VR

Le résumé fourni par la source

Thermal feedback during virtual object manipulation significantly enhances immersion in Virtual Reality (VR). Existing localized thermal feedback systems often leverage thermoelectric devices and use temperature setpoints to control the thermal feedback intensity. This approach is not ideal as it requires tuning a PID algorithm; and does not realistically reproduce the thermal transfer that occurs when holding objects. In an attempt to offer an easier-to-use and more realistic control of the thermal stimulation, control based on heat flow has emerged as a viable alternative. We conducted here two user studies to comprehensively evaluate and compare both control modalities — heat flow and temperature setpoint. The first one focused on thermal perception, latency, pleasantness, and the second assessed haptic experience within a task-based VR scenario. Our findings show that both modalities are effective in providing controlled thermal sensations in a VR context and lead to high levels of haptic experience. Our results tend to show that flow-based control, even when using a simplistic model, proposes equivalent realism and involvement to temperature-based methods, but falls short in terms of harmony. In light of this, flow-based control holds significant potential for enhancement through dynamic real-time heat transfer modeling. Moreover, its calibration-free nature and adaptability to environmental conditions enable seamless integration into various thermal feedback systems that could cater to numerous VR use cases.

Ce résumé expose les affirmations des auteurs. BNTIC ne l’interprète pas comme une validation indépendante des résultats.