Introduce Floor Vibration to Virtual Reality

Abstract

Floor vibration, a type of whole-body tactile stimulation, could mitigate cybersickness during virtual reality (VR) exposure. This study aims to further investigate its effects on cybersickness, as well as presence and emotional arousal by introducing floor vibration as a proxy for representing different virtual ground surfaces. For the investigation, a realistic walking-on-the-beach scenario was implemented, and floor vibrations were introduced in synchrony with the footsteps. Three conditions were designed based on the same scenario with different floor vibrations. The user study involving 26 participants found that there was no significant difference in presence and cybersickness across the three conditions, but the introduction of floor vibration (regardless the vibration type) had a mixed impact on the emotional arousal, as measured by changes in pupil sizes and skin conductance. Also, participants generally most preferred the matched vibration.