Generation of Atmosphere with Haptic Impressions by Using Surrounding Visual Stimuli

Abstract

This study aimed to develop an environment control system for generating an atmosphere with haptic impressions. Although the atmosphere cannot be touched in reality, it may occasionally induce haptic impressions. In this experiment, we prepared an experimental room whose walls were projected with animated stimuli, and thereafter, the relationship between the patterns of visual stimuli projected on the walls and the haptic sense of the room’s atmosphere was investigated. First, participants were recruited, and after obtaining written informed consent, they were instructed to create visual stimuli corresponding to several themes and project them on the wall. Second, after collecting adequate data on the visual stimuli created by participants, we extracted the common stochastic features quantities of these visual stimuli, among the participants, for each tactile sensation and created a generative model for wall-projected visual stimuli by using machine learning methods. Furthermore, when projecting the generated visual stimulus, we examined the type of impression experienced by the participants in the laboratory. Preliminarily, we show that the proposed model autonomously generated visual stimuli which subsequently, to a certain extent, evoked various haptic senses of the atmosphere, and its use was shown to change the participant’s impression.