The Effects of Whole-Hand Interactions with One Fingertip Vibrotactile Feedback on Cooperative VR Game Experience and Performance

New technologies have recently advanced user experiences in virtual reality (VR), whereas full sensation of diverse modalities has been not achieved yet. If any, haptic feedback has been delivered via bulky gloves. We have developed a novel thimble device that can deliver vibrotactile feedback via one fingertip. With this device, in the present study we investigated the effects of interaction methods and vibrotactile feedback on users’ social presence, presence, engagement, workload, and performance in a cooperative VR game. Twenty-six participants wearing a VR headset played a cooperative VR game with the experimenter under four conditions: (1) controllers with no vibrotactile feedback, (2) controllers with vibrotactile feedback, (3) hand tracking with no vibrotactile feedback, and (4) hand tracking with vibrotactile feedback. Results showed that hand tracking improved participants’ presence, engagement, and perceived workload compared to the traditional VR controllers. Also, vibrotactile feedback enhanced presence. However, the VR controllers outperformed the hand tracking interactions in completion time. The usability of hand interactions with vibrotactile feedback shows a promising result. We discuss the trade-offs between user experience and performance of the interaction methods and the potential of vibrotactile feedback in the VR environment.