Interaction with co-located haptic feedback in virtual reality

• DOI: 10.1007/s10055-006-0027-5
• Publication Date: 2006-04-26T08:18:35Z
• Authors: David Swapp; Vijay Pawar; Céline Loscos
• Keywords: Stereotaxy; Visual feedback

This paper outlines a study into the effects of co-location (the term `co-location' is used throughout to refer to the co-location of haptic and visual sensory modes, except where otherwise specified) of haptic and visual sensory modes in VR simulations. The study hypothesis is that co-location of these sensory modes will lead to improved task performance within a VR environment. Technical challenges and technological limitations are outlined prior to a description of the implementation adopted for this study. Experiments were conducted to evaluate the effect on user performance of co-located haptics (force feedback) in a 3D virtual environment. Results show that co-location is an important factor, and when coupled with haptic feedback the performance of the user is greatly improved.