Using the human sense of touch, pain control has been studied for decades. With the rise of Virtual Reality (VR) and haptic technologies, creating VR and haptic sensations provide a unique opportunity for pain distraction. In this paper, we present an experimental study to test whether VR and mid-air ultrasound tactile stimulation reduce perceived pain simulated via the cold pressor test, i.e., submerging a human hand in cold water (2 C) for as long as the test subject can. Fifty right-handed subjects participated in the study and three tasks were considered: task 1 involved experiencing the cold pressor test with no distraction (considered as the control task), task 2 involved playing a simple VR game with no tactile feedback, and task 3 utilized the same VR game with tactile feedback; tasks 2 and 3 were assigned in random order after task 1. The tolerance time, perceived pain rating, and quality of experience were evaluated and compared for the three tasks. Results demonstrated that when a VR task involves physical (touch) interaction, tactile stimulation plays a significant role in increasing pain tolerance time. Furthermore, the study demonstrated that for high pain tolerance participants, tactile stimulation is more effective for pain distraction compared to low pain tolerance participants. Although there are no significant differences in perceived pain and quality of experience between VR and VR+Tactile tasks, there are significant differences in tolerance time (Wilcox signed rank test, p 0.05). It is presumed that VR and the tactile stimulation induces positive emotions when utilized (for both valence and arousal).
The film industry continuously strives to make visitors’ movie experience more immersive and thus, more captivating. This is realized through larger screens, sophisticated speaker systems, and high quality 2D and 3D content. Moreover, a recent trend in the film industry is to incorporate multiple interaction modalities, such as 4D film, to simulate rain, wind, vibration, and heat, in order to intensify viewers’ emotional reactions. In this context, humans’ sense of touch possesses significant potential for intensifying emotional reactions for the film experience beyond audio-visual sensory modalities. This article presents a framework for authoring tactile cues (tactile gestures as used in this article) and enabling automatic rendering of said gestures to intensify emotional reactions in an immersive film experience. To validate the proposed framework, we conducted an experimental study where tactile gestures are designed and evaluated for the ability to intensify four emotional reactions: high valence-high arousal, high valence-low arousal, low valence-high arousal, and low valence-low arousal. Using a haptic jacket, participants felt tactile gestures that are synchronized with the audio-visual contents of a film. Results demonstrated that (1) any tactile feedback generated a positive user experience; (2) the tactile feedback intensifies emotional reactions when the audio-visual stimuli elicit clear emotional responses, except for low arousal emotional response since tactile gestures seem to always generate excitement; (3) purposed tactile gestures do not seem to significantly outperform randomized tactile gesture for intensifying specific emotional reactions; and (4) using a haptic jacket is not distracting for the users.
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