A Study on Immersion and Presence of a Portable Hand Haptic System for Immersive Virtual Reality

TLDR

The study introduces a portable hand haptic system that uses Leap Motion and an Arduino‑based wristband to deliver tactile feedback in VR and evaluates its impact on immersion and presence. The system identifies left and right hands, sends vibration and heat to thumb and index fingertips, captures motion via Leap Motion sensors, and integrates these signals into a wearable band to enable low‑cost, multi‑sensory tactile feedback for virtual object control. Survey results indicate that users experience significantly higher presence and immersion with the haptic system compared to hand‑tracking alone, with no increase in simulator sickness.

Abstract

This paper proposes a portable hand haptic system using Leap Motion as a haptic interface that can be used in various virtual reality (VR) applications. The proposed hand haptic system was designed as an Arduino-based sensor architecture to enable a variety of tactile senses at low cost, and is also equipped with a portable wristband. As a haptic system designed for tactile feedback, the proposed system first identifies the left and right hands and then sends tactile senses (vibration and heat) to each fingertip (thumb and index finger). It is incorporated into a wearable band-type system, making its use easy and convenient. Next, hand motion is accurately captured using the sensor of the hand tracking system and is used for virtual object control, thus achieving interaction that enhances immersion. A VR application was designed with the purpose of testing the immersion and presence aspects of the proposed system. Lastly, technical and statistical tests were carried out to assess whether the proposed haptic system can provide a new immersive presence to users. According to the results of the presence questionnaire and the simulator sickness questionnaire, we confirmed that the proposed hand haptic system, in comparison to the existing interaction that uses only the hand tracking system, provided greater presence and a more immersive environment in the virtual reality.