The Effect of Visual and Auditory Information on  the Perception of Pleasantness and Roughness of Virtual Surfaces (Advance Article)

In this study, different haptic virtual surfaces were rendered by varying the static and dynamic frictional coefficients of a Geomagic® Touch device. In Experiment  1, the haptic surfaces were paired with pictures representing everyday materials (glass, plastic, rubber and steel); in Experiment 2, the haptic surfaces were paired with sounds resulting from the haptic exploration of paper or sandpaper. In both the experiments, participants were required to rat e the pleasantness and the roughness of the virtual surfaces explored. Exploration times were also recorded. Both pleasantness and roughness judgments, as well as the durations of exploration, varied as a function of the combinations of the visuo-tactile and the audio-tactile stimuli presented. Take n together, these results suggest that vision and audition modulate haptic perception and hedonic preferences when tactile sensations are provided through a haptic device. Importantly, these results offer interesting suggestions for designing more pleasant, and even more realistic, multisensory virt ual surfaces.

Source: Multisensory research - December 5, 2017 Category: Neuroscience Authors: Roberta Etzi, Francesco Ferrise, Monica Bordegoni, Massimiliano Zampini and Alberto Gallace Source Type: research