60 https://www.uni-bremen.de/dmlab/forschung/more-than-a-buzz-advancing-haptic-feedback-in-virtual-reality-and-mixed-reality Dissertation von Nima Zargham mit dem Titel "Expanding speech interaction for domestic activities" de Universität Bremen Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:21:11 +0200 Sun, 11 Oct 2026 00:21:11 +0200 Universität Bremen content-734742 Wed, 01 Jul 2026 13:16:29 +0200 https://www.uni-bremen.de/dmlab/forschung/more-than-a-buzz-advancing-haptic-feedback-in-virtual-reality-and-mixed-reality#c734742 <p>Touching an object elicits rich haptic sensations that reveal its physical properties to the haptic sense.<br />For instance, when grasping a coffee cup, humans can feel its warmth and sense the coffee shifting<br />inside. Replicating such haptic sensations is fundamental to immersive virtual reality (VR) and mixed<br />reality (MR), as it allows users to feel virtual objects during touch interactions. While this claim for<br />haptic richness is reflected in the theoretical definition of immersion, in practice, creating such vivid<br />haptic sensations in digital interactions is challenging. Advances in displays and computing have<br />made consumer VR and MR more portable and lightweight, but have also constrained their haptic<br />capabilities. In practice, these systems are limited to vibrotactile feedback via handheld controllers or<br />provide none at all in hand-tracking scenarios. Although prior research has proposed a range of haptic<br />technologies to deliver richer haptic experiences, most approaches rely on specialised hardware,<br />which creates barriers to widespread adoption. As a result, widely available consumer VR and MR<br />systems fall short of the sensory richness that immersion strives to provide, as they offer either no<br />haptic feedback or only a narrow range of tactile sensations, omitting kinesthetic information.<br /><br />This dissertation addresses this gap by exploring novel ways to support vivid haptic experiences of<br />virtual objects while reducing reliance on specialised hardware. It advocates for leveraging established<br />affordances of current and future off-the-shelf VR and MR systems, mobile phones, and everyday<br />objects. To this end, it investigates several approaches. First, it shows how the haptic capacities of VR<br />controllers can be enhanced through software-based pseudo-haptic illusions. Second, it demonstrates<br />the potential to substitute specialised haptic technology with passive proxies augmented by headbased<br />haptic actuation to convey surface sensations. Third, it examines the potential of mobile phones<br />as a makeshift haptic interface for MR systems that often lack tangible interaction devices. This<br />work offers a design space for using physical features for passive haptic feedback and an empirical<br />understanding of how users hold and contact mobile phones during use. Findings offer practical<br />implications for redesigns of future mobile phones.<br /><br />This cumulative dissertation is structured in four parts. Part I provides a synopsis, motivating the<br />topic, presenting the research questions and methodologies, and outlining the contributions. Part II<br />provides the theoretical foundation of haptic perception and reviews related work. Part III contains<br />the five included publications. Part IV discusses the implications, limitations, and directions for future<br />research for advancing haptic feedback in VR and MR.<br /><br />Given the persistent gap between the specialised haptic technology proposed in prior research<br />and the continued reliance of consumer systems on vibrotactile feedback, this dissertation uncovers<br />new design spaces for advancing haptic feedback in VR and MR to enable richer haptic experiences.<br />Its multi-angle approach contributes empirical findings, artefacts, methodologies, and datasets that<br />can inform the development and evaluation of future haptic interfaces. This dissertation aims to<br />encourage further research bridging this gap by reimagining established affordances of current and<br />future technologies to enrich immersive haptic experience.</p> Content