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Temperature in a virtual world

27 May 2009

The Exograsp

Holding the virtual soft drink

Researchers from the University's Gippsland campus are undertaking a world-first study to better understand how temperature contributes to our perceptions of the world.

Dr George Van Doorn from the School of Humanities, Communications and Social Sciences and his team from the Monash Bionics and Cognitive Science Centre ran a series of tests to uncover the role temperature plays in contributing to the realism of virtual objects.

Using an Exograsp - a hand-based force-feedback exoskeleton that allows the user to grasp a virtual object with the thumb and forefinger – five participants were asked to explore a virtual soft-drink can with and without temperature cues.

The temperature of the virtual can was controlled through Peltier tiles mounted on the Exograsp's contact pads.

A "collision" algorithm was developed to activate the tiles when a participant's finger pad came into contact with the virtual object.

This enabled the participants to feel cold at the moment they saw a graphic of their hand grasp the virtual soft-drink can.

Dr Van Doorn said the ability to feel the temperature of the virtual object greatly increased each participant's sense of realism within the virtual environment.

He said the findings may eventually bring to life science fiction marvels such as the Holodeck from the television series ‘Star Trek'.

"There has been a lot of interest in creating believable virtual worlds, especially in computer gaming", he said.

"However, the importance of temperature in adding to the believability of virtual worlds has been overlooked.

"Touch is becoming an increasingly popular area of investigation with more scientists contributing to this important, yet under-acknowledged, sensory system."

Dr Van Doorn will present the research at the SimTecT conference in June.