(Not My) Self-Haptics: Reducing the Sense of Ownership and Agency Toward a Virtual Keypad Due to Visual Misalignment and Invisibility of the Self-Haptic Hand

Self-Haptics is a tactile feedback technique where users utilize their own body to generate tactile sensations. This method allows the body to act purely as a prop, making it useful for virtual objects and user interfaces not directly related to the body. However, a method for maintaining the sense of ownership (SoO) and agency (SoA) of the user's body and interaction targets that aligns with the perceptual interaction by visual cues does not established. To address this, we present the concept of “(Not My) Self-Haptics,” which aims to resolve these inconsistencies, leveraging vision's dominance in sensory integration. Our study proved how the task performance and the user's experience, including SoO and SoA toward a virtual keypad (VPad) displayed at the position of the real hand (RHand), changes based on the visual appearance of the VHand during the interaction with the VPad. The results show that displaying the VHand in a position different from the RHand or hiding the VHand significantly reduces SoO and SoA toward the VPad, with this effect more pronounced when the RHand faces downward. These findings contribute to the understanding of the interaction between visual and tactile sensations in Self-Haptics and the realization of “(Not My) Self-Haptics”.