The Influence of Visual Cues on Passive Tactile Sensations in a Multimodal Immersive Virtual Environment

Haptic feedback, such as the sensation of 'being touched', is an essential part of how we experience our environment. Yet, it is often disregarded in current virtual reality (VR) systems. In addition to the technical challenge of creating such tactile experiences there are also human aspects that are not fully understood, especially with respect to how humans integrate multimodal stimuli. In this research, we proved that the visual stimuli in a VR setting can influence how vibrotactile stimuli are perceived. In particular, we identified how visual cues that are associated with the characteristic of weight influence tactile perception, whereas a similar effect could not be achieved for a temperature-related visual cue. Our results have technical implications - for example, suggesting that a rather simple vibration motor may be sufficient to create a complex tactile experience such as perceiving weight - and relevance for practical implementations - for example, indicating that vibration intensities need to be 'exaggerated' to achieve certain effects.