Towards natural interaction in immersive reality with a cyber-glove

Over the past few years, virtual and mixed reality systems have evolved significantly yielding high immersive experiences. Most of the metaphors used for interaction with the virtual environment do not provide the same meaningful feedback, to which the users are used to in the real world. This paper proposes a cyber-glove to improve the immersive sensation and the degree of embodiment in virtual and mixed reality interaction tasks. In particular, we are proposing a cyber-glove system that tracks wrist movements, hand orientation and finger movements. It provides a decoupled position of the wrist and hand, which can contribute to a better embodiment in interaction and manipulation tasks. Additionally, the detection of the curvature of the fingers aims to improve the proprioceptive perception of the grasping/releasing gestures more consistent to visual feedback. The cyber-glove system is being developed for VR applications related to real estate promotion, where users have to go through divisions of the house and interact with objects and furniture. This work aims to assess if glove-based systems can contribute to a higher sense of immersion, embodiment and usability when compared to standard VR hand controller devices (typically button-based). Twenty-two participants tested the cyber-glove system against the HTC Vive controller in a 3D manipulation task, specifically the opening of a virtual door. Metric results showed that 83% of the users performed faster door pushes, and described shorter paths with their hands wearing the cyber-glove. Subjective results showed that all participants rated the cyber-glove based interactions as equally or more natural, and 90% of users experienced an equal or a significant increase in the sense of embodiment.