Changing Perception of Physical Properties using Multimodal Augmented Reality: Position Paper

Abstract

By means of augmented reality (AR) systems it has become increasingly easy to manipulate our perception of real objects. In this position paper we review existing work that changes physical property perception, and propose methods for changing perceived object density during haptic interaction. Our goal is to modulate the sound emitted by an object when touched. We hypothesize that augmented sound can make people think that an object is hollow or solid regardless of its actual object density. We describe an experiment to validate this hypothesis. Participants tap a hollow or solid cube and are asked to determine if it is hollow or solid, based on the multimodal feedback. This research is a first step towards an AR system that can alter multimodal perception of object physical properties, and open doors for related research.