Hafnia Hands: A Multi-Skin Hand Texture Resource for Virtual Reality Research

Abstract

We created a hand texture resource (with different skin tone versions as well as non-human hands) for use in virtual reality studies. This makes it easier to run lab and remote studies where the hand representation is matched to the participants’ own skin tone. We validate that the virtual hands with our textures align with participants’ view of their own real hands and allow to create VR applications where participants have an increased sense of body ownership. These properties are critical for a range of VR studies, such as of immersion.

Mediated Social Touching: Haptic Feedback Affects Social Experience of Touch Initiators

“…After collecting the consent form, the experimenter placed the tracking markers in ten locations on the participant's hand and calibrated the system. Participants chose their avatar's skin texture from six skin texture resources [50]. To limit the variation in stroking, the experimenter demonstrated the stroking on their own hand and directed participants to stroke as if they were stroking a real hand, and that the stroke should TABLE I: The questions posed to participants.…”

Enhancing Localization Performance with Extended Funneling Vibrotactile Feedback

“…Participants were offered a selection of hand textures attained from the 'Hafnia Hands' resource [37], which covered all six skin-tone levels of the Fitzpatrick scale [38]. This set of hand textures has proven instrumental in numerous embodiment and remote VR studies, consistently demonstrating its capacity to heighten participants' sense of body ownership, particularly when the chosen 'Hafnia hands' closely resembled the participants' own skin tone.…”