Can Haptic Feedback Improve the Perception of Self-Motion in Virtual Reality?

This paper describes a psychological experiment which was conducted to evaluate the influence of haptic feedback on the perception of self-motion in virtual reality. Participants were asked to estimate the angle of one turn made during a passive visual navigation. Sometimes, during the turn, a haptic feedback was sent to the dominant hand of the participants. This haptic feedback consisted in rotating the participants’ fist by the same angular value as the visual turn. Three different conditions were tested: no haptic feedback, a direct haptic feedback (i.e. the fist was rotated in the direction of the visual turn), an indirect haptic feedback (i.e. the fist was rotated in the opposite direction of the visual turn). The presence of haptic feedback globally influenced the performances of the participants. On average, with either direct or indirect haptic feedback, participants evaluated more precisely the turn’s angle than without haptic feedback. These results suggest that the perception of selfmotion in virtual reality could be improved by using an appropriate haptic feedback. Haptic stimulation during navigation could partially substitute for the missing information provided by proprioception and vestibular system.