Providing 3D Guidance and Improving the Music-Listening Experience in Virtual Reality Shooting Games Using Musical Vibrotactile Feedback

In this study, we aim to improve the experience of virtual reality (VR) shooting games by employing a 3D haptic guidance method using necklace-type and belt-type haptic devices. Such devices help to modulate the vibrations generated by and synchronized with musical signals according to the azimuth and height of a target in 3D space, which is expected to improve the gaming experience by providing 3D guidance and enhancing the music-listening experience. For the first step, we evaluated the method's potential by conducting an experiment in which participants were asked to shoot a randomly spawned target moving in 3D VR space. The experiment applied four conditions: the proposed method (Haptic), displaying 3D radar (Vision) to represent the visualization method, no guidance (None), and a combination of Haptic and Vision (VisHap). Outcomes related to the success rate and accomplishment time (of the shooting task), the number of head rotations, and participant responses to a follow-up questionnaire revealed that Haptic performed significantly better than None but was inferior to Vision, indicating that the proposed method succeeded in terms of effectively providing 3D guidance. VisHap performed roughly as well as Vision and was preferred to other conditions in most cases, indicating the general usefulness of the proposed method. Meanwhile, the findings from the questionnaire suggest that although the modular vibrations improved the music-listening experience during the shooting task, the impact on the overall gaming experience is unclear. This warrants further research.