Hand-to-hand: an intermanual illusion of movement

Abstract

Apparent tactile motion has been shown to occur across many contiguous part of the body, such as fingers, forearms, and back. A recent study demonstrated the possibility of eliciting the illusion of movement from one hand to the other when interconnected by a tablet. In this paper we explore intermanual apparent tactile motion without any object between them. In a series of psychophysical experiments we determine the control space for generating smooth and consistent motion, using two vibrating handles which we refer to as the Hand-to-Hand vibrotactile device. In a first experiment we investigated the occurrence of the phenomenon (i.e., movement illusion) and the generation of a perceptive model. In a second experiment, based on those results, we investigated the effect of hand postures on the illusion. Finally, in a third experiment we explored two visuo-tactile matching tasks in a multimodal VR setting. Our results can be applied in VR applications with intermanual tactile interactions.

Creating an Illusion of Movement between the Hands Using Mid-Air Touch

“…We provide and compare two perceptive models, one for each of the above techniques. Finally, we compare our results with a previous study that used physical tactile stimulation (i.e., vibrotactile actuators) [4]. Although we hypothesize that dynamic point stimulation will result in a stronger illusion of movement compared to static point stimulation, it is not clear if the results from the dynamic mid-air focal point will differ from those of physical touch on the hands.…”

“…Zhao et al investigated the ATM between two hands interconnected by a tablet [3]. Moreover, Pittera et al [4] recently illustrated how the illusion occurs when the two hands are not interconnected. Finally, Wilson et al studied ATM occurring on a single hand using mid-air stimulation [27].…”

“…This both reduces the number of attachments on the user's body and the programming complexity. Previous research has demonstrated the successful use of ATM: Israr et al delivering movement on the back [1], [2], Zhao et al [3] rendering movement between two hands interconnected by a tablet, and Pittera et al [4] investigating the ATM illusion between two non-interconnected hands. All of these studies have made use of physical touch.…”

Space—A Virtual Frontier: How to Design and Evaluate a Virtual Reality Experience of the Overview Effect

“…Adding subtle cues on multiple sensory channels could make this first-person embodied sensory experience even more likely to occur. Recent developments of multisensory technologies for VR could aid in supporting embodied experiences: olfactory devices (Morie et al, 2009;Risso et al, 2018), temperature (Ranasinghe et al, 2017), haptic (Pittera et al, 2017;Whitmire et al, 2018). For example, when the sun appears virtually, a heater could provide the experience of warmth coming from the perceived sunlight.…”

Representing Interpersonal Touch Directions by Tactile Apparent Motion Using Smart Bracelets

“…The tablet device works as a medium for extending and connecting discrete sites of the body, that is, the hands. Pittera et al demonstrated intermanual TAM without a medium using two handheld devices with embedded vibrators [48]. Through other major tactile illusions, which are the phantom sensation / funneling [49] and cutaneous rabbit illusion / saltation [50], various studies have found that the illusionary tactile sensation travels between the discrete sites of the body [51], [52] or outside of the body [53]- [56].…”