Virtual reality (VR) systems can enable convenient hand-based interactions across diverse work scenarios. However, mid-air gestures lack tactile feedback and a physical reference surface to support the hand. This absence of haptic grounding can cause significant challenges in achieving precise and efficient touch interactions. This paper investigates the effect of different types of hand-grounded haptic feedback on the touch performance of VR tasks that demand high precision, such as selecting, tracing, and sketching. We compared three levels of haptic feedback: 1) No Haptic Feedback, where only visual feedback was provided; 2) Tactile Feedback, where users received vibrotactile and pressure feedback upon touching a virtual surface; 3) Physical Surface, where users interacted with a portable and tangible surface. Our study found that portable physical surfaces enabled the best selection precision, tracing efficiency, and sketch quality. Furthermore, participants showed increased bimanual hand utilization when engaging with a physical surface during tasks. These observed behaviors corresponded to participants' preference for interacting with physical surfaces, attributed to a better sense of confidence and control.
Virtual Reality (VR) offers potential for productivity work by creating expansive displays anywhere, yet current systems often rely on external input devices that limit the on-the-go use of mobile VR. We introduce HandPad, a suite of bare-hand interaction techniques that leverage…
With the proliferation of Virtual Reality (VR) markets, VR applications are rapidly expanding in scale and complexity, thereby driving an urgent need for assuring VR software quality. Different from traditional mobile applications and computer software, VR testing faces unique ch…
People who have interacted with simulated worlds and simulated objects in extended reality (XR) often have a sense that they can 'feel' the objects being simulated despite them not being physical. Our sense of touch is essential for how we 'feel' the physical world, however, ther…
Creating 3D assets for virtual reality requires modeling expertise, which restricts the authorship of immersive experiences. Existing generative AI tools rely on unconstrained, command-driven prompting, lacking the conversational scaffolding needed for users to articulate their i…
Assessing learning in virtual reality (VR) environments typically relied on traditional pre-post content retention tests, revealing little about the process of learnng within such immersive environments. Multimodal data from player activity in VR is promising to better measure le…
Conventional Mixed Reality (MR) workspaces are frequently organized in cockpit-like layouts, where multiple floating windows surround the user. While this configuration facilitates access to digital content, it often induces occlusion, reducing understanding of the physical envir…