Difference of the Sense of the Texture Between Visual and Touchable Cloth Object in VR Space

Abstract

In a virtual reality (VR) space, the texture of cloth is perceived visually using the influence of three-dimensional computer graphics (3DCG) representing the cloth object surface material and movement. In recent years, research has been conducted on various dynamics-based cloth simulations in 3DCG. However, the relation between the mechanical parameters of the generated cloth and the texture of the cloth has not been clarified, and instead is implemented based on the sense of the 3DCG developer. In this study, we examine the differences of the texture sense between the visual texture of cloth objects and the texture when actively touching the cloth objects in a VR space, by changing mechanical parameters of the cloth. The experimental results with 10 subjects using a semantic differential method showed that the subjects did not feel a clear texture with most adjective pairs in the visual texture only. The subject obtained the texture more clearly by actively touching the cloth with no haptic feedback. It also was revealed that with some mechanical parameters, the sense of texture can be reversed between the visual-only feeling and the active touch of the cloth.