Multimodal “sensory illusions” for improving spatial awareness in virtual environments

Lawson, Glyn; Roper, Tessa; Abdullah, Che

Abstract

Inaccurate judgement of distances in virtual environments (VEs) restricts their usefulness for engineering development, in which engineers must have a good understanding of the spaces they are designing. Multimodal feedback can improve depth perception in VEs, but this has yet to be implemented and tested in engineering applications with systems which provide haptic feedback to the body.

The project reported in this paper will develop a multimodal VE to improve engineers’ understanding of 3D spaces. It will test the concept of “sensory illusions” where the point of collision in the VE differs to the point of haptic feedback on the body. This will permit the use of fewer vibrotactile devices and therefore the development of a more wearable system. This paper describes related work in multisensory and tactile stimulation which suggests that our perception of a stimulus is not fixed to the point of contact.

Citation

Lawson, G., Roper, T., & Abdullah, C. (2016, September). Multimodal “sensory illusions” for improving spatial awareness in virtual environments. Presented at European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics 2016

• Conference Name: European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics 2016
• Start Date: Sep 6, 2016
• End Date: Sep 8, 2016
• Acceptance Date: May 2, 2016
• Publication Date: Sep 8, 2016
• Deposit Date: Jul 18, 2016
• Publicly Available Date: Sep 8, 2016
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Book Title: ECCE '16: proceedings of the European Conference on Cognitive Ergonomics
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1145/2970930.2970945
• Keywords: Multisensory; Virtual environments; Spatial awareness
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/791732
• Contract Date: Jul 18, 2016