Continuous Measurement Methods for Transient Physiological Discomfort in VR LocomotionMotion sickness, in addition to its persistent long-term effects, also exhibits short-term effects characterized as transient physiological discomfort, which changes rapidly with variations in locomotion. However, such discomforts are challenging to assess using current subjective scales and objective physiological measurements. To tackle this issue, this paper suggests continuous measurement methods designed specifically for evaluating transient physiological discomfort during VR locomotion. Through a user-elicitation study, three preferred measurement methods—'squeezing ball', 'sliding thumb', and 'rubbing thigh'—were identified. These techniques were then evaluated for reliability, validity, attention, presence, and workload, with 'sliding thumb' identified as the most effective option. The paper expands traditional measurement methods to capture users' physiological experiences in VR interactions, offering practical choices for researchers in this field along with an in-depth discussion of design considerations, detailed implementation guidelines, and potential ways to optimize the VR experiences utilizing the measurement data.2026TLTianren Luo et al.Institute of SoftwareMotion Sickness & Passenger ExperienceImmersion & Presence ResearchCHI
From Preference to Performance: Patient-Centered Design of Multimodal Cueing in Parkinson’s Disease Gait TrainingParkinson’s disease (PD) commonly leads to gait disorders that necessitate long-term rehabilitation dependent on specialists and clinic-based interventions. To reduce dependence on clinicians and investigate how wearable technology can provide continuous guidance for rehabilitation training. We distilled key design principles from patient–clinician interviews and co-designed a gait training system. The system employs inertial measurement units (IMUs) to capture kinematic data, then delivers multimodal cueing (visual, auditory, and somatosensory) aligned with walking features. Two user studies (N = 16 PD patients) evaluated the effectiveness of multimodal cueing, examining strategies for information delivery and gait correction. Results indicated that visual and auditory cueing were more effective for process-oriented adjustments, whereas somatosensory stimulation better supported periodic cueing. Moreover, a dissociation between performance outcomes and user preferences was observed. These findings highlight the potential of wearable technology to provide continuous, daily training guidance for PD patients.2026XLXinjin Li et al.Chinese Academy of SciencesHaptic WearablesVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationBiosensors & Physiological MonitoringCHI
ElectroGrasp: Electrotactile Aids for Visually Impaired Individuals in Anticipatory Planning and Control of GraspGrasping objects typically relies on visual input to pre-shape the hand and plan movement trajectories, a process often disrupted in visually impaired (VI) individuals. ElectroGrasp is a wearable electro-tactile system that delivers anticipatory proprioceptive and tactile information through three complementary modalities: Grasping Orientation, Size, and Shape. This system dynamically conveys spatial features-thereby enhancing anticipatory grasp planning and control through tactile perception. Three experiments were conducted to evaluate ElectroGrasp. The first examined tactile pattern discriminability, size perception thresholds, and the reliability of orientation encoding. The second assessed learning time with ElectroGrasp and its effectiveness in supporting spatial representation, demonstrating accurate spatial perception of objects from electrotactile input. The third compared grasp aperture under audio versus electrotactile cues, revealing that ElectroGrasp reduced hand overshoot and regrasp corrections. Overall, the results demonstrate that ElectroGrasp provides efficient tactile information, enables improved anticipatory grasp planning comparable to visual cues, and offers a novel assistive solution for VI users.2026HZHechuan Zhang et al.Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of SciencesVibrotactile Feedback & Skin StimulationHaptic WearablesVisual Impairment Technologies (Screen Readers, Tactile Graphics, Braille)CHI
Exploring the Remapping Impact of Spatial Head-hand Relations in Immersive TelesurgeryThe action remapping between the user and the avatar creates significant perceptual and behavioral challenges. Recently, in addition to virtual environments, remapping has also given rise to new applications—immersive teleoperated robots. This paper selects immersive telesurgery, a representative scenario, as an opportunity for research, exploring the generalized effects of remapping. In such a scenario, the operator can observe through the robot's camera and use their hands to control the robotic arms, as if they were the robot. However, common remapping of spatial head-hand relations—due to camera adjustments and robotic arm switching—creates significant visual-proprioceptive conflicts and physical limitations. To explore this, we simulated a telesurgery system with 6 head-camera and 12 hand-robotic-arm remapping conditions, assessing non-surgeon participants across four surgical tasks: navigation, location, cutting, and bimanual coordination. The study examines spatial perception bias, interaction deviation, workload, and task completion time. Our findings reveal how different remapping targets, attributes, intensities, and situations affect performance, contributing to the understanding of perception mechanisms and offering insights for optimizing operations or systems.2025TLTianren Luo et al.Institute of Software, Chinese Academy of Sciences; College of Computer Science and Technology, University of Chinese Academy of SciencesTeleoperated DrivingHuman-Robot Collaboration (HRC)CHI
Exploring the Effects of Sensory Conflicts on Cognitive Fatigue in VR RemappingsVirtual reality (VR) is found to present significant cognitive challenges due to its immersive nature and frequent sensory conflicts. This study systematically investigates the impact of sensory conflicts induced by VR remapping techniques on cognitive fatigue, and unveils their correlation. We utilized three remapping methods (haptic repositioning, head-turning redirection, and giant resizing) to create different types of sensory conflicts, and measured perceptual thresholds to induce various intensities of the conflicts. Through experiments involving cognitive tasks along with subjective and physiological measures, we found that all three remapping methods influenced the onset and severity of cognitive fatigue, with visual-vestibular conflict having the greatest impact. Interestingly, visual-experiential/memory conflict showed a mitigating effect on cognitive fatigue, emphasizing the role of novel sensory experiences. This study contributes to a deeper understanding of cognitive fatigue under sensory conflicts and provides insights for designing VR experiences that align better with human perceptual and cognitive capabilities.2024TLTianren Luo et al.Eye Tracking & Gaze InteractionImmersion & Presence ResearchUIST
WieldingCanvas: Interactive Sketch Canvases for Freehand Drawing in VRSketching in Virtual Reality (VR) is challenging mainly due to the absence of physical surface support and virtual depth perception cues, which induce high cognitive and sensorimotor load. This paper presents WieldingCanvas, an interactive VR sketching platform that integrates canvas manipulations to draw lines and curves in 3D. Informed by real-life examples of two-handed creative activities. WieldingCanvas interprets users' spatial gestures to move, swing, rotate, transform, or fold a virtual canvas, whereby users simply draw primitive strokes on the canvas, which are turned into finer and more sophisticated shapes via the manipulation of the canvas. We evaluated the capability and user experience of WieldingCanvas with three studies where participants were asked to sketch target shapes. A set of freehand sketches of high aesthetic qualities were created, and the results demonstrated that WieldingCanvas can assist users with creating 3D sketches.2024XTXiaohui Tan et al.Capital Normal UniversityMixed Reality Workspaces3D Modeling & AnimationInteractive Narrative & Immersive StorytellingCHI
Exploring Experience Gaps Between Active and Passive Users During Multi-user Locomotion in VRMulti-user locomotion in VR has grown increasingly common, posing numerous challenges. A key factor contributing to these challenges is the gaps in experience between active and passive users during co-locomotion. Yet, there remains a limited understanding of how and to what extent these experiential gaps manifest in diverse multi-user co-locomotion scenarios. This paper systematically explores the gaps in physiological and psychological experience indicators between active and passive users across various locomotion situations. Such situations include when active users walk, fly by joystick, or teleport, and passive users stand still or look around. We also assess the impact of factors such as sub-locomotion type, speed/teleport-interval, motion sickness susceptibility, etc. Accordingly, we delineate acceptability disparities between active and passive users, offering insights into leveraging notable experimental findings to mitigate discomfort during co-locomotion through avoidance or intervention.2024TLTianren Luo et al.Institute of Software, College of Computer Science and TechnologySocial & Collaborative VRImmersion & Presence ResearchCHI
Exploring Sensory Conflict Effect Due to Upright Redirection While Using VR in Reclining & Lying PositionsWhen users use Virtual Reality (VR) in nontraditional postures, such as while reclining or lying in relaxed positions, their views lean upwards and need to be corrected, to make sure they see upright contents and perceive the interactions as if they were standing. Such upright redirection is expected to cause visual-vestibular-proprioceptive conflict, affecting users' internal perceptions (e.g., body ownership, presence, simulator sickness) and external perceptions (e.g., egocentric space perception) in VR. Different body reclining angles may affect vestibular sensitivity and lead to the dynamic weighting of multi-sensory signals in the sensory integration. In the paper, we investigated the impact of upright redirection on users' perceptions, with users' physical bodies tilted at various angles backward and views upright redirected accordingly. The results showed that upright redirection led to simulator sickness, confused self-awareness, weak upright illusion, and increased space perception deviations to various extents when users are at different reclining positions, and the situations were the worst at the 45-degree conditions. Based on these results, we designed some illusion-based and sensory-based methods, that were shown effective in reducing the impact of sensory conflict through preliminary evaluations.2022TLTianren Luo et al.Motion Sickness & Passenger ExperienceFull-Body Interaction & Embodied InputImmersion & Presence ResearchUIST