Evaluation of Presence in Virtual Environments: Haptic Vest and User´s Haptic Skills

This paper presents the integration of a haptic vest with a multimodal virtual environment, consisting of video, audio, and haptic feedback, with the main objective of determining how users, who interact with the virtual environment, benefit from tactile and thermal stimuli provided by the haptic ve...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores: García-Valle, Gonzalo, Ferre, Manuel, Breñosa, José Manuel, Vargas, D.
Tipo de recurso: artículo
Estado:Versión publicada
Fecha de publicación:2017
País:España
Institución:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositorio:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/170741
Acceso en línea:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/170741
Access Level:acceso abierto
Palabra clave:Haptic interfaces, human factors, serious game, thermal actuators, vibrotactile actuators, virtual reality
Descripción
Sumario:This paper presents the integration of a haptic vest with a multimodal virtual environment, consisting of video, audio, and haptic feedback, with the main objective of determining how users, who interact with the virtual environment, benefit from tactile and thermal stimuli provided by the haptic vest. Some experiments are performed using a game application of a train station after an explosion. The participants of this experiment have to move inside the environment, while receiving several stimuli to check if any improvement in presence or realism in that environment is reflected on the vest. This is done by comparing the experimental results with those similar scenarios, obtained without haptic feedback. These experiments are carried out by three groups of participants who are classified on the basis of their experience in haptics and virtual reality devices. Some differences among the groups have been found, which can be related to the levels of realism and synchronization of all the elements in the multimodal environment that fulfill the expectations and maximum satisfaction level. According to the participants in the experiment, two different levels of requirements are to be defined by the system to comply with the expectations of professional and conventional users.