[Paper] Influence of Local Lag on Human Perception of Softness in Networked Virtual Environment with Haptic Sense

Abstract

This paper investigates the influence of local lag on human perception of softness in a networked virtual environment with haptic sense by Quality of Experience (QoE) assessment. The local lag control can keep the consistency in the game state among multiple terminals by setting the local lag to the network delay. In the assessment, we employ only one terminal in a networked haptic balloon bursting game where there are two balloons in a virtual space; one balloon has a standard value of softness (expressed in force here) and the local lag is set to 0 ms, and the other has a different value of softness and the local lag is set to a certain value. Each subject bursts the two balloons by using a haptic interface device and answers which balloon is harder or not. As a result, we clarify how largely the local lag makes the softness harder.