Visual Manipulation for Underwater Drag Force Perception in Immersive Virtual Environments

In this paper, we propose to reproduce drag forces in a virtual underwater environment. To this end, we first compute the drag forces to be exerted on human limbs in a physically correct way. Adopting a pseudo-haptic approach that generates visual discrepancies between the real and virtual limb motions, we compute the extent of drag forces that are applied to the virtual limbs and can be naturally perceived. Through two tests, our drag force simulation method is compared with others. The results show that our method is effective in reproducing the sense of being immersed in water. Our study can be utilized for various types of virtual underwater applications such as scuba diving training and aquatic therapy.