The Role of Haptic Feedback in Enhancing Basic Technical Skills Acquisition and Transfer in an Immersive Simulator: A User Study

Abstract

We study the impact of haptic feedback on basic technical skills transfer from VR to the real world. Twenty-four volunteers were divided into two training groups (haptic and no-haptic groups) and a control group. The training groups learned to perform a "Ring Transfer" task in a VR simulator, and all participants performed pre-, post, and retention tests on a similar physical setup. Results show that skill transfer is observed for both training groups and not for the control group. The haptic group participants also improved their performance compared to the no-haptic group, but the difference was not significant.