Optimizing Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality: The Role of Vibration and Tangential Forces in Enhancing Grasp Response and Weight Perception

This study explored haptic feedback methods that do not rely on tangential forces, aiming to address the miniaturization challenges of haptic feedback devices in current virtual reality environments. We employed a six-degree-of-freedom haptic interface to construct a virtual grasping scene that simulates the stick-slip phenomenon. By comparing user grip response speed and force adjustment capability under different conditions: no haptic feedback, vibration feedback, and vibration with tangential force feedback, we collected data on users’ grip responses under different haptic conditions. The results demonstrate that vibration feedback can significantly improve users’ grip response speed without tangential forces. However, without tangential forces, users find it hard to differentiate responses based on the weight of objects. This indicates that while vibration feedback can simplify the design of haptic devices and enhance response speed, tangential forces are still essential for accurate weight perception. The theoretical and practical significance of this research lies in providing a new direction for haptic feedback devices in virtual reality.

This works was demonstrated at [Eurohaptics 2024]