Haptic Illusion Glove: A Glove for Illusionary Touch Feedback when Grasping Virtual Objects

Abstract

When touching virtual objects, we lack haptic feedback using commonly and commercially available VR controllers, such as the HTC Vive Controller or Oculus Touch. Haptic Illusion Glove is a wearable device used to create the haptic illusion when grasping objects. When the fingers touch the palm and we see our (in reality empty hand) in virtual reality holding an object, we “feel” the virtual object in our hand. We basically believe the touch of our fingers felt at our palm can be induced by the held object. This concept assumes that vision-based proprioceptive illusion creates the impression of having a grasping hand, even though the thumb is not perfectly abducted.

In this paper, we present a user study that indicated cylindrical objects of a certain diameter range are suitable to create haptic grasp feedback for virtual objects. To create a believable illusion, the diameter of the grasped object has to be small enough to allows for one-handed grasping the object. In a user study, we explored the usability of Haptic Illusion Glove when grasping different objects. Our results indicate a high usability of Haptic Illusion Glove when grasping a cup, a hammer, and a water can.