Indicating wind direction using a fan-based wind display

Abstract

Recently, several virtual reality (VR) systems that use wind to enhance users' sensation of presence have been built. In typical systems, wind sources (mostly fans) are arranged rather sparsely around the user. If the fans are arranged more densely, the system can provide a more precise expression of wind direction. However, excessive density is meaningless, because users may not discriminate direction between neighboring fans. In this study, we conducted an experiment to measure the just-noticeable difference (JND) of perception of wind direction, and found a large inter-subject difference. By analyzing the cause of this difference, we find that the locality of wind velocity distribution, together with slight misalignment of the fans, can cause significant errors in wind direction perception. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.