Haptic Communication in Collaborative Virtual Environments

Objective:To understand the interaction between haptic and verbal communication, we quantified the relative effect of verbal, haptic, and haptic-plus-verbal feedback in a collaborative virtual pointing task.Background:Collaborative virtual environments (CVEs) provide a medium for interaction among remote participants. Better understanding of the role of haptic feedback as a supplement to verbalization can improve the design of CVEs.Methods:Thirty-six participants were randomly paired into 18 dyads to complete a 2-D pointing task in a CVE. In a mixed experimental design, participants completed the task in three communication conditions: haptic only (H), verbal only (V), and haptic plus verbal (HV). The order of the conditions presented to the participants was counterbalanced.Results:The time to task completion, path length, overshoot, and root mean square error were analyzed. Overall, performance in the V and HV conditions was significantly better than in the H condition. H was the least efficient communic...