Pseudo-Wind Perception Induced by Cross-Modal Reproduction of Thermal, Vibrotactile, Visual, and Auditory Stimuli

Numerous wind displays have been developed to provide wind sensation in virtual reality applications. However, in previous studies, wind displays required the production of physical wind using a wind source. To release cold or hot wind, previous wind displays required large equipment for making the air temperature changes. In this study, we propose to induce pseudo-wind perception, perceiving wind even in the absence of physical wind, using visuo-audio-haptic cross-modal effects. We provide audio-visual stimuli with a head-mounted display and headphones, and vibrotactile and thermal stimuli to the skin using belt-type devices, instead of physical wind. We found that vibrotactile and thermal stimuli based on the measurement of skin displacement and temperature exposed to the wind are suitable for the tactile sensation of wind. We also found that thermal and audio-visual stimuli can induce wind sensation of cold wind, and that vibro-thermal stimuli in addition to audio-visual stimuli are effective for the wind sensation and realness of the experience of hot wind. In future, inducing variable types of wind sensations will be pursued as a research direction regarding pseudo-wind perception.