HTC Vive Controller Research Articles

Glove versus controller: the effect of VR gloves and controllers on presence, embodiment, and cognitive absorption

Introduction: Using our own hands allows humans to interact with the real world, as we learn from an early age. Virtual reality (VR) gloves allow a similar interaction in VR by transferring hand movements through natural mapping. Research outside the VR domain has already shown that this process creates a high level of presence and perceived naturalness. Research in the VR context, on the other hand, is still in an early stage and lacks explorative qualitative research following a human-centered approach and including the direct perceptions of users on mapped controls in system design. Against that background, this research investigates natural mapping in the VR context qualitatively. The study examines how participants experience VR input devices with different degrees of natural mapping (VR gloves, a Valve index controller, and an HTC Vive controller) on perceived naturalness, spatial presence, embodiment, and cognitive absorption.Methods: A focus group (N = 20 aged 22–36) did the VR experience with the devices and was asked about their experience in semi-structured interviews. Questions focused on perceived naturalness, spatial presence, cognitive absorption, and embodiment with the three devices. Data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis.Results: Feedback on spatial presence was widely positive for the VR glove due to the highly natural perceived movement capabilities. Mapping with the partly mapped index controller was also seen as natural and immersing if the movement matched the operated actions in the system. Participants mainly perceived the highest degree of cognitive absorption and embodiment while doing the task with the VR glove.Discussion: The findings indicate that the natural mapping capabilities of VR input devices strongly influence spatial presence. The VR glove stands out while being able to induce a feeling of embodiment in most cases. Furthermore, participants reported a connection between natural mapping and perceived cognitive absorption in the task.

Proyectos de digitalización y realidad virtual en el patrimonio arqueológico. El caso del yacimiento de la Motilla del Azuer en Daimiel (Ciudad Real)

This article presents the virtualization project of the Motilla del Azuer archaeological site in Daimiel (Ciudad Real, Spain). This project is using new and unique tools for the research, documentation, interpretation and dissemination of this important prehistoric site. The incorporation of advanced technological tools in the field of archaeological and cultural heritage, such as digital documentation and virtual reality (VR), are creating new avenues for managing cultural legacies. Modern advances in 3D digitization and VR allow the application of these techniques on a wide range of cultural assets with different characteristics and chronologies, opening a broad spectrum of new possibilities in research, education, and public outreach. This is an expanding area of heritage management as it creates a positive impact on the economic, cultural and social activities of local communities and regions. Because of these positive impacts, more and more stakeholders such as institutions, administrations, and heritage organisations are taking an active interest in this sector of technological development. In the case of the Motilla del Azuer archaeological site, the digitization and virtualization work undertaken, along with other dissemination activities, have provided critical products for the presentation, interpretation, and promotion of this monument.La Motilla del Azuer is one of the most unique archaeological sites in Spain. Dating from the Bronze Age, it is a fortification with a central plan, formed by three lines of concentric walls distributed around a central tower (Fig. 2). Inside, the labyrinthine shape of the access systems is remarkable, made up of narrow corridors, stairs, ramps... This defensive enclosure allowed the protection and control of essential products for the people of the Bronze Age. Its true uniqueness is that it encloses monumental water well more than 15 m deep.La Motilla del Azuer is open to the public and receives thousands of visitors each year. But for conservation reasons, the number of people who can access the site is highly controlled. Likewise, due to its defensive nature and its age, it is a space through which it is difficult to circulate, which makes it impossible for people with reduced mobility to visit. For these and other reasons, the Daimiel City Council in collaboration with the US non-profit entity Global Digital Heritage and the Spanish company Myou Software, has developed a project to digitize the archaeological site and make it accessible through an installed VR system, located permanently in the Daimiel Museum, the interpretation centre for the site (Fig. 10). This facility is designed to be used both by people in wheelchairs or with reduced mobility, as well as all visitors to the museum, and provides a realistic virtual tour of the site. To achieve this level of realism, a detailed 3D digitization of the site using photogrammetry, laser scanning, and 3D spherical photography was undertaken, and a VR installation based on the use of an HTC Vive Pro device that has motion controllers for hands (HTC Vive controllers) and feet (HTC Vive Trackers) was developed. The primary software is called Myou Engine, an open-source 3D engine compatible with XR, developed by the Myou Software company. In order to increase the immersiveness as much as possible, the Myou Software company has also developed a control system called Natural Locomotion that works by moving the arms and legs (Fig. 11).The final result of the project has allowed the implementation of an innovative VR space that increases accessibility to the archaeological site, represents a new tourist attraction for the town, and promotes new ways of managing and enjoying archaeological heritage.

Triggermuscle: Exploring Weight Perception for Virtual Reality Through Adaptive Trigger Resistance in a Haptic VR Controller

It is challenging to provide users with a haptic weight sensation of virtual objects in VR since current consumer VR controllers and software-based approaches such as pseudo-haptics cannot render appropriate haptic stimuli. To overcome these limitations, we developed a haptic VR controller named Triggermuscle that adjusts its trigger resistance according to the weight of a virtual object. Therefore, users need to adapt their index finger force to grab objects of different virtual weights. Dynamic and continuous adjustment is enabled by a spring mechanism inside the casing of an HTC Vive controller. In two user studies, we explored the effect on weight perception and found large differences between participants for sensing change in trigger resistance and thus for discriminating virtual weights. The variations were easily distinguished and associated with weight by some participants while others did not notice them at all. We discuss possible limitations, confounding factors, how to overcome them in future research and the pros and cons of this novel technology.

Virtual and Augmented Reality Direct Ophthalmoscopy Tool: A Comparison between Interactions Methods

Direct ophthalmoscopy (DO) is a medical procedure whereby a health professional, using a direct ophthalmoscope, examines the eye fundus. DO skills are in decline due to the use of interactive diagnostic equipment and insufficient practice with the direct ophthalmoscope. To address the loss of DO skills, physical and computer-based simulators have been developed to offer additional training. Among the computer-based simulations, virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR, respectively) allow simulated immersive and interactive scenarios with eye fundus conditions that are difficult to replicate in the classroom. VR and AR require employing 3D user interfaces (3DUIs) to perform the virtual eye examination. Using a combination of a between-subjects and within-subjects paradigm with two groups of five participants, this paper builds upon a previous preliminary usability study that compared the use of the HTC Vive controller, the Valve Index controller, and the Microsoft HoloLens 1 hand gesticulation interaction methods when performing a virtual direct ophthalmoscopy eye examination. The work described in this paper extends our prior work by considering the interactions with the Oculus Quest controller and Oculus Quest hand-tracking system to perform a virtual direct ophthalmoscopy eye examination while allowing us to compare these methods without our prior interaction techniques. Ultimately, this helps us develop a greater understanding of usability effects for virtual DO examinations and virtual reality in general. Although the number of participants was limited, n = 5 for Stage 1 (including the HTC Vive controller, the Valve Index controller, and the Microsoft HoloLens hand gesticulations), and n = 13 for Stage 2 (including the Oculus Quest controller and the Oculus Quest hand tracking), given the COVID-19 restrictions, our initial results comparing VR and AR 3D user interactions for direct ophthalmoscopy are consistent with our previous preliminary study where the physical controllers resulted in higher usability scores, while the Oculus Quest’s more accurate hand motion capture resulted in higher usability when compared to the Microsoft HoloLens hand gesticulation.

An electromyogram-based tapping gesture model with differentiated vibration feedback by low-fidelity actuators

Among other aspects like attention and focus, the effectiveness of actions, such as training in percussion, also relies on the correct gesture and strength of the individual carrying out the activity repetitively to develop proper muscle memory and train motor skills. To make this process economical and efficient, we propose a system that models the feature of direction and strength of a tap and receives the corresponding active haptic feedback in an immersive virtual environment. We propose a novel tapping gesture model that takes electromyogram and vibration feedback into consideration. We also propose an approach of designing vibration modes that follow the mechanical stimulation principles and generate distinguishable vibration feedback with low-fidelity actuators. We developed a prototype using myoelectric and haptic apparatus (Myo armband and HTC VIVE controllers) and evaluated our system by conducting a user study with 50 participants. The evaluation shows that the users can distinguish three common materials (wood, rubber, and aluminum), and our system allows them to actively adjust their direction and strength to grasp the correct point while tapping. We demonstrate the efficacy of our tapping model on a virtual Chinese chimes application and observe positive feedback from both novices and expert users.

NaviBoard and NaviChair: Limited Translation Combined with Full Rotation for Efficient Virtual Locomotion.

Walking has always been considered as the gold standard for navigation in Virtual Reality research. Though full rotation is no longer a technical challenge, physical translation is still restricted through limited tracked areas. While rotational information has been shown to be important, the benefit of the translational component is still unclear with mixed results in previous work. To address this gap, we conducted a mixed-method experiment to compare four levels of translational cues and control: none (using the trackpad of the HTC Vive controller to translate), upper-body leaning (sitting on a "NaviChair", leaning the upper-body to locomote), whole-body leaning/stepping (standing on a platform called NaviBoard, leaning the whole body or stepping one foot off the center to navigate), and full translation (physically walking). Results showed that translational cues and control had significant effects on various measures including task performance, task load, and simulator sickness. While participants performed significantly worse when they used a controller with no embodied translational cues, there was no significant difference between the NaviChair, NaviBoard, and actual walking. These results suggest that translational body-based motion cues and control from a low-cost leaning/stepping interface might provide enough sensory information for supporting spatial updating, spatial awareness, and efficient locomotion in VR, although future work will need to investigate how these results might or might not generalize to other tasks and scenarios.

Reaching in Several Realities: Motor and Cognitive Benefits of Different Visualization Technologies.

There is increasing interest in using virtual reality (VR) in robotic neurorehabilitation. However, the use of conventional VR displays (i.e., computer screens), implies several transformations between the real movements in 3D and their 2D virtual representations that might negatively impact the rehabilitation interventions. In this study, we compared the impact on movement quality and cognitive load of novel vs. standard visualization technologies: i) Immersive VR (IVR) head-mounted display (HMD), ii) Augmented reality (AR) HMD, and iii) Computer screen. Twenty healthy participants performed simultaneously a motor and a cognitive task. Goal-oriented reaching movements were recorded using an HTC Vive controller. The cognitive load was assessed by the accuracy on a simultaneous counting task.The movement quality improved when visualizing the movements in IVR, compared to the computer screen. These improvements were more evident for locations that required movements in several dimensions. We found a trend to higher movement quality in AR than Screen, but worse than IVR. No significant difference was observed between modalities for the cognitive load. These results provide encouraging evidence that VR interventions using HMDs might be more suited for reaching tasks in several dimensions than a computer screen. Technical limitations might still limit the beneficial effects of AR, both in movement quality and cognitive load.

Assessing hands-free interactions for VR using eye gaze and electromyography

With the increasing popularity of virtual reality (VR) technologies, more efforts have been going into developing new input methods. While physical controllers are widely used, more novel techniques, such as eye tracking, are now commercially available. In our work, we investigate the use of physiological signals as input to enhance VR experiences. We present a system using gaze tracking and electromyography on a user’s forearm to make selection tasks in virtual spaces more efficient. In a study with 16 participants, we compared five different input techniques using a Fitts’ law task: Using gaze tracking for cursor movement in combination with forearm contractions for making selections was superior to using an HTC Vive controller, Xbox gamepad, dwelling time, and eye-gaze dwelling time. To explore application scenarios and collect qualitative feedback, we further developed and evaluated a game with our input technique. Our findings inform the design of applications that use eye-gaze tracking and forearm muscle movements for effective user input in VR.