Ethermal - Lightweight Thermal Feedback for VR Games

One of the major benefits of virtual reality (VR) lies in its ability to create a heightened sense of presence through visual and auditory modalities. To further enhance presence, research has investigated various ways to allow for tactile perception of objects in virtual environments. Among the different dimensions of tactile perception, thermal feedback is less explored, especially in the context of games which renders many existing approaches impractical due to their interference with game controllers. In this paper, we present Ethermal - a thermal feedback solution - designed to a) convey temperature information through the player's hands while b) still permitting the use of standard VR game controllers. An evaluation with 10 players, using the device in a custom-made virtual environment to demonstrate different use cases of thermal feedback, suggests that an increased feel of general and spatial presence and experienced realism can be achieved even with simple technological means.