Do cartoons feel pain?: using the virtual hand illusion to test human response to degrees of realism

Virtual reality has reached the consumer market and exhibited the potential to become a large social and commercial platform for mainstream markets. New, low-cost devices for virtual reality or mixed reality such as the Oculus Rift, Sony's Project Morpheus, or Microsoft's HoloLens are already available or have been announced and might even outperform previous high-cost systems [Young et al. 2014]. Techniques to measure hand motions are in the making with the goal of being able to control virtual hands using one's own hand movements as well as interact with objects in virtual reality applications. Prototypes such as the combination of the Leap Motion Controller and the Oculus Rift are already available. Applications for these devices will certainly follow.