Improve Immersion in Virtual Reality-Based Basketball Training By Haptic Feedback

Wan-Lun Tsai, Tse-Yu Pan, Min-Chun Hu

Abstract: Many studies have investigated the feasibility of using real sport equipment in VR-based sport training. However, providing haptic feedback to mimic real-world ball interaction (passing and catching) is still less explored. In this paper, a VR-based basketball training system comprising vibrotactile gloves is proposed. With the aid of haptic feedback, the immersive feelings related to interaction with a basketball in a virtual court are improved. A within-subject experiment which compared with/without haptic feedback conditions was conducted. The improvement of presence was objectively measured by an electroencephalography (EEG) approach using a portable, low-cost EEG headset in a virtual catching scenario. Furthermore, the passing reaction time was assessed in a VR-based tactic training scenario to explore the effect of haptic feedback on the performance during training. The results demonstrated the possibility of using low-cost EEG headset to assess the presence. Because the perception of catching was mainly affected by visual, haptic feedback did not make significant effect on the passing reaction time. Nevertheless, the proposed gloves was commented to improve the experience of passing and catching.