Vibro-vestibular Wheelchair for Vehicle Riding Experience in Immersive Virtual Reality

Abstract

In this study, we modified a wheelchair by attaching two direct current motors to drive each wheel and provide whole-body vibration and vestibular sensation. This motion simulator can be used to enhance the vehicle riding experience in immersive virtual reality or telepresence. We examined herein the effectiveness of the translational motion feedback from the vestibular wheelchair when presenting recorded images with spatial motion from the stereoscopic cameras on the head-mounted display (HMD). The results of the intensity comparison with the magnitude estimation method showed that the perception of vestibular acceleration by the wheelchair was stronger than that of visually presented acceleration in the HMD. Moreover, approximately 25% intensity of the visual acceleration is appropriate for suppressing virtual reality sickness. The questionnaire results revealed that adding vestibular acceleration to the visual acceleration increases the sense of presence, regardless of the vestibular sensation intensity.