Evaluating Touchless Haptics for Interaction with Virtual Objects

In recent years, touchless (mid-air, hands-free) haptic interactive concepts with machines have gained popularity due to their health benefits and accessible feedback in everyday items. In particular, touchless haptics are particularly effective in creating realistic virtual environments. This paper examines the performance and user experience of touchless haptics for manipulating virtual objects. A comparative study involving seven participants was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of a touch controller versus a touchless haptic system (Ultraleap). Participants tested three interaction techniques in a virtual environment, performing a range of control actions on various virtual objects, including adjusting the size and spatial position of geometric volumes and manipulating a lever. Results indicate that while the touch controller remains the preferred tool for simpler tasks due to its ease of learning, touchless haptics reveals nearly as effective when a virtual representation of the user's hands, as visual reference, is incorporated into the immersive environment. Under these conditions, both systems demonstrate comparable effectiveness for specific command and resizing tasks.