Shaken, not Stirred: Visualizing Vibrotactile Feedback in Virtual Reality

This paper proposes three different methods of visualizing vibrotactile feedback in Virtual Reality (VR) by developing a multimodal system that simulates the turbulence felt during a commercial airline flight. The system consisted of a physical apparatus (wooden platform with integrated subwoofers) and a digital virtual environment of the interior of an airplane. The goal of the system was to enhance the participants’ level of immersion by adding a visualization of vibrotactile feedback. An experiment was conducted to evaluate whether the proposed solution achieved its purpose. A statistical test was performed on the collected data, and the results indicated that when compared to no visualization of the perceived vibrotactile feedback, the method of shaking objects in the virtual environment has the potential to increase immersion in VR. In particular, the aspects of sensory and visual engagement, involvement and focus on the virtual environment, and lastly real-world consistency and consistency between senses, demonstrated a significant increase.