Using psychophysical experiment to investigate Velvet Hand Illusion (VHI) characteristics for new tactile display

Abstract

Tactile illusions as a practical method in virtual reality allow us to induce a real feeling of an object's properties such as shape or texture although the object not physically exists. The moving wires between two hands induce a velvet-like sensation to hands called Velvet Hand Illusion (VHI). We have proposed that VHI can be used in a tactile display in virtual reality. In order to examine this, first, it was mandatory to be revealed physical parameters which might be the effect on the strength of VHI. We investigated effects of distance (D), stroke (r) and velocity (V) of wires on the intensity of VHI by conducting the psychophysical experiments. In accordance with the experimental results, we could propose a psychophysiological model based on the mechanoreceptors afferent units for VHI including type one of slow and fast adaptive mechanoreceptive units (SAI and FAI). In the end, we examined quality and intensity of VHI to be produced by a tactile display in compared with VHI-based two wires. This result indicated that VHI can produce by tactile display so that a person to interpret velvet-like texture in his/her hand.