FeelVR: Haptic Exploration of Virtual Objects

The interest in virtual and augmented reality increased rapidly in the last years. Recently, haptic interaction and its applications get into focus. In this paper, we suggest the exploration of virtual objects using off-the-shelf VR game controllers. These are held like a pen with both hands and were used to palpate and identify the virtual object. Our study largely coincides with comparable previous work and shows that a ready-to-use VR system can be basically used for haptic exploration. The results indicate that virtual objects are more effectively recognized with closed eyes than with open eyes. In both cases, objects with a bigger morphological difference were identified the most frequently. The limitations due to quality and quantity of tactile feedback should be tackled in future studies that utilize currently developed wearable haptic devices and haptic rendering involving all fingers or even both hands. Thus, objects could be identifiable more intuitively and haptic feedback devices for interacting with virtual objects will be further disseminated.