Recognition of weight through shaking interaction

It is common to investigate the content of a box or bottle by shaking it. The authors have investigated virtual realization of the shaking interaction using a haptic device that can present inertial force. This paper reports experiments on the discrimination and estimation of content´s weight through the shaking interaction. In an experiment, the characteristics of recognition by the subject were evaluated by comparing the real box with solid content and the virtual box with a simulation model. Further, evaluation with liquid content was conducted. The result proved that the device can present solid content in a similar accuracy to the real box. Moreover, it was suggested that the motion of the gravity center of the box has a significant effect on the recognition of the content weight.