Eliciting Care for Virtual Objects: A Work-in-Progress on Pseudo-Haptic Fragility via Dynamic Visual Feedback and Direct Hand Interaction

• João Anisio Marinho da Nobrega UFRN / AKCIT IMD
• Davi Duarte de Freitas UFRN / AKCIT IMD
• Gabriel Paes Landim de Lucena UFRN / AKCIT IMD
• Marcos Arthur da Silva Melo UFRN / AKCIT IMD
• Felipe Fausto Azevedo de Lima UFRN / AKCIT IMD
• Alyson Matheus Carvalho de Souza UFRN / AKCIT IMD

DOI: https://doi.org/10.5753/svr_estendido.2025.15255

Resumo

This paper presents a work-in-progress on a virtual reality (VR) system designed to elicit a sense of “care” towards virtual objects without relying on traditional haptic hardware. Our method translates the user’s physical grip strength into a dynamic, multi-layered feedback system: a diegetic UI on a robotic hand visualizes the applied force, while a procedural shader generates real-time micro-fractures on the object’s surface. This approach aims to create a credible perception of fragility and measurably promote “careful” user behavior, exploring a novel, perception-based pathway for emotional and behavioral response in VR. The system uses Unity and the Meta SDK on Meta Quest 3, focusing on planning a user study to evaluate the impact of incremental sensory feedback. The outcomes of this project have the potential to provide designers with evidence-based techniques for creating more nuanced and emotionally compelling virtual experiences.

Referências

Ferran Argelaguet, Franck Multon, and Anatole Lécuyer. Pseudo-haptics for weight perception in VR: controller vs. bare hand interactions with tracking delay and vertical offset. In 2016 IEEE International Conference on Virtual Reality (VR), pages 31–36. IEEE, 2016.

Gavin Buckingham, Manuela Tacca, Micaela Giammarco, Chiara Begliomini, and Sonia Betti. Using immersive virtual reality to examine how visual and tactile cues contribute to the material-weight illusion. Journal of Neurophysiology, 126(6):2050–2060, 2021.

Luciano De Agostini, Gabriel Nador, Jean Brand, Gabriela Weiler, Gelson Avelar, and Márcia de Souza. Motion Rehab 3D AVE V2: um novo VR-exergame para fisioterapia motora. In Anais Estendidos do Simpósio de Realidade Virtual e Aumentada, pages 25–28. SBC, 2019. DOI: 10.5753/svrestendido.2019.12948.

Geraldo Viana Júnior, Williams Ramos de Lacerda, and Mário Chaves Ferreira. Desenvolvimento de um Jogo Sério com Realidade Virtual para Ensino de Frações para Alunos com TDAH. In Anais do XXXV Simpósio Brasileiro de Informática na Educação, pages 2685–2695. SBC, 2024. DOI: 10.5753/sbie.2024.235940.

Anatole Lécuyer. Simulating haptic feedback using vision: a survey of research and applications of pseudo-haptic feedback. Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 18 (1):39–53, 2009.

Anatole Lécuyer, Sabine Coquillart, Abderrahmane Kheddar, Philippe Richard, and Philippe Coiffet. Pseudo-haptics: a new way to provide force feedback in virtual environments. In ACM SIGGRAPH 2000 Conference Abstracts and Applications, page 157. ACM, 2000.

Donald A. Norman. Affordance, conventions, and design. Interactions, 6(3):38–43, 1999.