Virtual reality enables immersion in any environment. According to the hue-heat hypothesis, an environment’s color temperature influences thermal perception and regulation, factors important for productivity and energy consumption. Previous work suggests that visual thermal cues, e.g., snowy or desert environments, affect thermal perception and regulation. As color temperature was not controlled, it is unknown if hue or thermal cues caused the effects. In our first study, we derived two virtual environments with cold or warm thermal cues. In the second study, participants experienced these environments with varying hues for 5 minutes. We found that hue influences thermal sensation and thermal cues influence sensation, comfort, and skin temperature. As these effects seem to increase beyond 5 minutes, a third study with longer exposure and more extreme hue differences confirmed and extended these findings. Overall, our results consistently show that hue and visual thermal cues independently affect thermal perception and regulation. This highlights the importance of considering both when designing virtual environments.

Simulating accurate weight forces in Virtual Reality (VR) is an unsolved challenge. Therefore, providing real weight sensations by transferring liquid mass has emerged as a promising approach. However, key objectives conceptually interfere with each other. In particular, previous designs that support a high range of weight or high flow rate lack mobility. In this work, we present MobileGravity, a system, that decouples the weight-changing object from the liquid supply and the pump. It enables weight changes of up to 1 kg at a rate of 235 g/s and allows the user to walk around freely. Through a study with 30 participants, we show that the system enables users to perceive the weight of different virtual objects and enhances realism, as well as enjoyment.

Weight interfaces enable users of Virtual Reality (VR) to perceive the weight of virtual objects, significantly enhancing realism and enjoyment. While research on these systems primarily focused on their implementation, little attention has been given to determining the weight to be rendered by them: As the perceived weight of objects is influenced not only by their absolute mass, but also by their weight distribution and prior expectations, it is currently unknown which simulated mass provides the most realistic representation of a given object. We conducted a study, in which 30 participants chose the best fitting weight for a virtual object in 54 experimental trials. Across these trials, we systematically varied the virtual objects’ visual mass (three levels), their weight distribution (six levels), and the position of the physical mass on the grip (three levels). Our Bayesian analysis suggests that the visual weight distribution of objects does not affect which absolute physical mass best represents them, whereas the position of the provided physical mass does. Additionally, participants overweighted virtual objects with lower visual mass while underweighting objects with higher visual mass. We discuss how these findings can be leveraged by designers of weight interfaces and VR experiences to optimize realism.