VR Blowing: A Physically Plausible Interaction Method for Blowing Air in Virtual Reality

This article introduces an interaction method allowing virtual reality (VR) users to interact with virtual objects by blowing air. The proposed method allows users to interact with virtual objects in a physically plausible way by recognizing the intensity of the wind generated by the user's actual wind blowing activity in the physical world. This is expected to provide immersed VR experience since it enables users to interact with virtual objects in the same way they do in the real world. Three experiments were carried out to develop and improve this method. In the first experiment, we collected the user's blowing data and used it to model a formula to estimate the speed of the wind from the sound waves obtained through a microphone. In the second experiment, we investigated how much gain can be applied to the formula obtained in the first experiment. The aim is to reduce the lung capacity required to generate wind without compromising physical plausibility. In the third experiment, the advantages and disadvantages of the proposed method compared to the controller-based method were investigated in two scenarios of blowing a ball and a pinwheel. According to the experimental results and participant interview, participants felt a stronger sense of presence and found the VR experience more fun with the proposed blowing interaction method.