Usability of a virtual reality system based on a wearable haptic interface

Recent scientific works regarding interaction in virtual realities presented many different approaches for haptic feedback. However, the usability of a wearable device, which deflects forces on the user's body in some way, has not been evaluated up until now in the context of virtual realities. In this work we present the application of a wearable haptic interface in virtual realities and evaluate its usability. The wearable haptic interface can be carried like a backpack, is embedded in a multimodal virtual reality framework and enables its user to touch and manipulate virtual objects with his right arm. We evaluate whether the deflection of forces on the user's torso degrades the sense of presence and assess the usability and user acceptance of the wearable haptic interface in a virtual reality scenario. We conducted a presence questionnaire with 18 test persons in order to acquire subjective measures. As an objective measure a task performance experiment was carried out.