Eva-Lotta Sallnäs
Abstract
An experimental study of interaction in a collaborative desktop virtual environment is described. The aim of the experiment was to investigate if added haptic force feedback in such an environment affects perceived virtual presence, perceived social presence, perceived task performance, and task performance. A between-group design was employed, where seven pairs of subjects used an interface with graphic representation of the environment, audio connection, and haptic force feedback. Seven other pairs of subjects used an interface without haptic force feedback, but with identical features otherwise. The PHANToM, a one-point haptic device, was used for the haptic force feedback, and a program especially developed for the purpose provided the virtual environment. The program enables for two individuals placed in different locations to simultaneously feel and manipulate dynamic objects in a shared desktop virtual environment. Results show that haptic force feedback significantly improves task performance, perceived task performance, and pereceived virtual presence in the collaborative distributed environment. The results suggest that haptic force feedback increases perceived social presence, but the difference is not significant.
- APPELLE, S. 1991. Haptic perception of form: Activity and stimulus attributes. In The Psychology of Touch, M. Heller and W. Schiff, Eds. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Hillsdale, NJ, 169-188.Google Scholar
- BASDOGAN, C., HO, C., SLATER, M., AND SRINIVASAN, M. A. 1998. The role of haptic communication in shared virtual environments. In Proceedings of the Third Workshop on Phantom User Group (Dedham, MA, Oct. 3-6). http://www.ai.mit.edu/conferences/pug98Google Scholar
- BURDEA, G. C. 1996. Force and Touch Feedback for Virtual Reality. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY. Google Scholar
- DAFT,R.L.AND LENGEL, R. H. 1986. Organizational information requirements, media richness, and structural design. Manage. Sci. 32, 5 (May), 554-571. Google Scholar
- DURLACH,N.AND SLATER, M. 1998. Presence in shared virtual environments and virtual togetherness. In Proceedings of the British Telecom Workshop on Presence in Shared Virtual Environments (Ipswich, Suffolk, June 10-11).Google Scholar
- GUPTA, R., SHERIDAN, T., AND WHITNEY, D. 1997. Experiments using multimodal virtual environments in design for assembly analysis. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 6,3, 318-338.Google Scholar
- HASSER,C.J.,GOLDENBERG,A.S.,MARTIN,K.M.,AND ROSENBERG, L. B. 1998. User performing a GUI pointing task with a low-cost force-feedback computer mouse. In Proceedings of the Conference on ASME Dynamics and Control Division. 151-156.Google Scholar
- HELD,R.M.AND DURLACH, N. I. 1992. Telepresence. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 1,1 (Winter), 109-112. Google Scholar
- HENDRIX,C.AND BARFIELD, W. 1996. The sense of presence within auditory virtual environments. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 5, 3, 290-301.Google Scholar
- HOFFMAN,H.G.,HOLLANDER, A., SCHRODER, K., ROUSSEAU, S., AND FURNESS, T. 1998. Physically touching and tasting virtual objects enhances the realism of virtual experiences. Virt. Real. 3, 226-234.Google Scholar
- HURMUZLU, Y., EPHANOV, A., AND STOIANOVICI, D. 1998. Effect of a pneumatically driven haptic interface on the perceptional capabilities of human operators. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 7, 3, 290-307. Google Scholar
- ISHII, M., NAKATA, M., AND SATO, M. 1994. Networked SPIDAR: A networked virtual environment with visual, auditory, and haptic interactions. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 3, 4, 351-359.Google Scholar
- KATZ,R.AND TUSHMAN, M. 1978. Communication patterns, project performance, and task characteristics: An empirical evaluation in an R&D setting. Org. Behav. Hum. Perf. 23, 139-162.Google Scholar
- MASSIE, T. H. 1996. Initial haptic explorations with the phantom: Virtual touch through point interaction. Master's Thesis. Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA.Google Scholar
- MCLEOD, P. L. 1996. New communication technologies for group decision making: Toward an integrated framework. In Communication and Group Decision Making, R. Y. Hirokawa and M. S. Poole, Eds. Sage Publications, Inc., Thousand Oaks, CA, 426-461.Google Scholar
- RICE, R. E. 1993. Media appropriateness: Using social presence theory to compare traditional and new organizational media. Hum. Comm. Res. 19, 4, 451-484.Google Scholar
- SHORT, J., WILLIAMS, E., AND CHRISTIE, B. 1976. The Social Psychology of Telecommunications. John Wiley and Sons, Inc., New York, NY.Google Scholar
- SJOSTROM,C.AND RASSMUS-GROHN, K. 1999. The sense of touch provides new computer interaction techniques for disabled people. Tech. Disab. Res. & Dev. 10, 1, 45-52.Google Scholar
- SLATER,M.AND WILBUR, S. 1997. A framework for immersive virtual environments (Five): Speculations on the role of presence in virtual environments. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 6, 6, 603-616.Google Scholar
- WITMER,B.G.AND SINGER, M. J. 1998. Measuring presence in virtual environments: A presence questionnaire. Presence: Teleoper. Virtual Environ. 7, 3, 225-240. Google Scholar
Index Terms
- Supporting presence in collaborative environments by haptic force feedback
Recommendations
Evaluation of different types of haptic feedback influencing the task-based presence and performance in virtual reality
PETRA '19: Proceedings of the 12th ACM International Conference on PErvasive Technologies Related to Assistive EnvironmentsHaptic feedback may support immersion and presence in virtual reality (VR) environments. The emerging market of consumer devices offers first devices which are expected to increase the degree of feeling being actually present in a virtual environment. ...
Can Haptic Feedback on One Virtual Object Increase the Presence of Another Virtual Object?
VRST '22: Proceedings of the 28th ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and TechnologyThis paper investigated whether increased presence from experiencing haptic feedback on one virtual object can transfer to another virtual object. Two similar studies were run in different environments: an immersive virtual environment and a mixed ...
Using a preamble to increase presence in digital virtual environments
Immersion in a digital virtual environment (DVE) increases the likelihood that individuals will feel present in the DVE and hence respond as they would in a similar physically grounded environment. Previous research utilizing high-fidelity technology ...
Reviews
M. M.C. Schraefel
The article presents the results of an experiment to consider whether or not a haptic force feedback interaction improves virtual presence, perceived social presence, perceived task performance, and task performance in shared tasks carried out in a desktop virtual environment. The article clearly describes the experimental measures, and as such proves a useful model for describing and reporting experimental results in general. The authors claim that the results demonstrate, "that haptic force feedback gives added support to people performing collaborative tasks in a multimodal interface." Three of the five tasks in the experiment, however, can be carried out without the virtual assistance of one of the participant pairs. The experiment does not seem to control for the degree to which any pair worked together or separately for these tasks. While it is clear from the results that haptic force feedback did improve most measures for this experiment (and this is an important result), it is not clear the degree to which this improvement is in shared or not shared task experience, so the authors' claim may or may not be justified. It would be worthwhile to consider repeating the experiment, using a design which required collaboration for each task.
Access critical reviews of Computing literature here
Become a reviewer for Computing Reviews.
Comments