Passive Haptic Feedback for Control Elements in Virtual Reality

We designed a controller-based hand input method that allows users to perceive haptic feedback with typical handheld controllers when interacting with virtual control elements while at the same time benefitting from precise controller-based tracking. We performed an experiment comparing our controller-based input method against native HMD hand tracking. Interestingly, hand tracking was robust and precise during interactions with most control elements in our experimental setup. A surprising outcome was that haptic feedback generally slowed down users during interaction, potentially due to a fear of hitting the physical surface during interaction.