The King-Kong Effects: Improving sensation of walking in VR with visual and tactile vibrations at each step

In this paper we present novel sensory feedbacks named ”King-Kong Effects” to enhance the sensation of walking in virtual environments. King Kong Effects are inspired by special effects in movies in which the incoming of a gigantic creature is suggested by adding visual vibrations/pulses to the camera at each of its steps. In this paper, we propose to add artificial visual or tactile vibrations (King-Kong Effects or KKE) at each footstep detected (or simulated) during the virtual walk of the user. The user can be seated, and our system proposes to use vibrotactile tiles located under his/her feet for tactile rendering, in addition to the visual display. We have designed different kinds of KKE based on vertical or lateral oscillations, physical or metaphorical patterns, and one or two peaks for heal-toe contacts simulation. We have conducted different experiments to evaluate the preferences of users navigating with or without the various KKE. Taken together, our results identify the best choices for future uses of visual and tactile KKE, and they suggest a preference for multisensory combinations. Our King-Kong effects could be used in a variety of VR applications targeting the immersion of a user walking in a 3D virtual scene.