In this paper, we investigate postural reinforcement haptics for mid-air typing using squeeze actuation on the wrist. We propose and validate eye-tracking based objective metrics that capture the impact of haptics on the user's experience, which traditional performance metrics like speed and accuracy are not able to capture. To this end, we design four wrist-based haptic feedback conditions: no haptics, vibrations on keypress, squeeze+vibrations on keypress, and squeeze posture reinforcement + vibrations on keypress. We conduct a text input study with 48 participants to compare the four conditions on typing and gaze metrics. Our results show that for expert qwerty users, posture reinforcement haptics significantly benefit typing by reducing the visual attention on the keyboard by up to 44% relative to no haptics, thus enabling eyes-away behaviors.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581467
Extended Reality (XR) technology brings exciting possibilities for aeroplane passengers, allowing them to escape their limited cabin space. Using nearby physical surfaces enables a connection with the real world while improving the XR experience through touch. However, available surfaces may be located in awkward positions, reducing comfort and input performance and thus limiting their long-term use. We explore the usability of passive haptic surfaces in different orientations, assessing their effects on input performance, user experience and comfort. We then overcome ergonomic issues caused by the confined space by using perceptual manipulation techniques that remap the position and rotation of physical surfaces and user movements, assessing their effects on task workload, comfort and presence. Our results show that the challenges posed by constrained seating environments can be overcome by a combination of passive haptics and remapping the workspace with moderate translation and rotation manipulations. These manipulations allow for good input performance, low workload and comfortable interaction, opening up XR use while in transit.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581079
When we get lost in Virtual Reality (VR) or want to return to a previous location, we use the same methods of locomotion for the way back as for the way forward. This is time-consuming and requires additional physical orientation changes, increasing the risk of getting tangled in the headsets' cables. In this paper, we propose the use of undo actions to revert locomotion steps in VR. We explore eight different variations of undo actions as extensions of point\&teleport, based on the possibility to undo position and orientation changes together with two different visualizations of the undo step (discrete and continuous). We contribute the results of a controlled experiment with 24 participants investigating the efficiency and orientation of the undo techniques in a radial maze task. We found that the combination of position and orientation undo together with a discrete visualization resulted in the highest efficiency without increasing orientation errors.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581557
Interactive technologies offer novel opportunities for physically extending our bodies, with the most prominent examples being prosthetics along with systems emerging from the wearables community. However, most such systems appear to focus on instrumental benefits, missing out on the opportunity to use bodily extensions for play and its associated benefits (including a lower adoption barrier and the potential to reveal a broader understanding of such technologies). To begin understanding the design of playful bodily extensions, we interviewed five designers of bodily extensions that have been showcased in prestigious academic venues or turned into commercial products. Here we present themes and actionable advice from these interviews for the design of playful bodily extensions through a thematic analysis. Our work aims to support the design of future playful bodily extensions while promoting the experiential qualities of bodily extension design, with the ultimate goal of bringing more playful experiences to people’s lives.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3581165
Humans' thermal regulation and subjective perception of temperature is highly plastic and depends on the visual appearance of the surrounding environment. Previous work shows that an environment’s color temperature affects the experienced temperature. As virtual reality (VR) enables visual immersion, recent work suggests that a VR scene's color temperature also affects experienced temperature. It is, however, unclear if an avatar’s appearance also affects users’ thermal perception and if a change in thermal perception even influences the body temperature. Therefore, we conducted a study with 32 participants performing a task in an ice or fire world while having ice or fire hands. We show that being in a fire world or having fire hands increases the perceived temperature. We even show that having fire hands decreases the hand temperature compared to having ice hands. We discuss the implications for the design of VR systems and future research directions.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580668
The global pandemic exposed serious drawbacks in relying on communication modalities in which social touch, however important, is absent. Considerable research has explored haptic technologies for sensing or displaying social touch and influencing affective state, for wellness, social communication, emotion regulation, and affect therapy. However, this Affective Haptic System design (AHSD) work varies widely in purpose and origin discipline, making it difficult to perceive overall progress and identify primary obstacles to practical deployment. We conducted a scoping review and conceptual analysis with a design lens, identifying 110 papers from the last decade in 11 ACM and IEEE venues that regularly attract AHSD work. Our analysis identified 38 dimensions within 8 facets: demographic, theoretical grounding, impact, system specification, usage specification, ethical consideration, technology, and evaluation. We visualize trends, disciplinary mixing, and topical focus over time, and highlight major advances while pinning down crucial gaps that can be addressed in the future.
https://doi.org/10.1145/3544548.3580735