Dynamic and Modular Thermal Feedback for Interactive 6DoF VR: Implementation and Evaluation

Thermal effects in Virtual Reality (VR) can provide sensory information when interacting with objects, or create a thermal ambiance for a Virtual Environment (VE). They are critical to a range of applications, such as firefighting training or thermal comfort simulation. Existing ambient thermal feedback systems revealed limitations: most of them lack proper sensory characterization, are intrusive and/or limit movements, and are difficult to replicate. In this context, our contribution is a reproducible room-scale system able to provide dynamic ambient thermal feedback for 6 Degrees of Freedom VR experiences. We present its psychophysical study on thermal sensation, latency, and noise (n=10).