Effects of self-avatar cast shadow and foot vibration on telepresence, virtual walking experience, and cybersickness from omnidirectional movie.

Human locomotion is most naturally achieved through walking, which is good for both mental and physical health. To provide a virtual walking experience to seated users, a system utilizing foot vibrations and simulated optical flow was developed. The current study sought to augment this system and examine the effect of an avatar's cast shadow and foot vibrations on the virtual walking experience and cybersickness.

Pseudo-Sensation of Walking Generated by Passive Whole-Body Motions in Heave and Yaw Directions.

Walking is an innate human behavior that propels the body forward. Recent studies have investigated the creation of a walking sensation wherein, the body neither moves nor is forced to move. However, it is unclear which whole-body motions effectively induce the sensation of walking.

Virtual Walking Sensation by Prerecorded Oscillating Optic Flow and Synchronous Foot Vibration.

This article reports the first psychological evidence that the combination of oscillating optic flow and synchronous foot vibration evokes a walking sensation. In this study, we first captured a walker's first-person-view scenes with footstep timings. Participants observed the naturally oscillating scenes on a head-mounted display with vibrations on their feet and rated walking-related sensations using a Visual Analogue Scale.

Remapping Peripersonal Space by Using Foot-Sole Vibrations Without Any Body Movement.

The limited space immediately surrounding our body, known as peripersonal space (PPS), has been investigated by focusing on changes in the multisensory processing of audio-tactile stimuli occurring within or outside the PPS. Some studies have reported that the PPS representation is extended by body actions such as walking. However, it is unclear whether the PPS changes when a walking-like sensation is induced but the body neither moves nor is forced to move.

Tactile Apparent Motion on the Torso Modulates Perceived Forward Self-Motion Velocity.

The present study investigated whether a tactile flow created by a matrix of vibrators in a seat pan simultaneously presented with an optical flow in peripheral vision enhances the perceived forward velocity of self-motion. A brief tactile motion stimulus consisted of four successive rows of vibration, and the interstimulus onset between the tactile rows was varied to change the velocity of the tactile motion. The results show that the forward velocity of self-motion is significantly overestimated for rapid tactile flows and underestimated for slow ones, compared with optical flow alone or non-motion vibrotactile stimulation conditions.