Rubber hand illusion using tactile projector

Abstract

In this paper, we inspect a new rubber hand illusion (RHI) which uses invisible haptic feedback by using an airborne ultrasound tactile display (AUTD). RHI is an illusion that a subject misunderstands the ownership of his/her body. When a subject is given tactile stimulation on his/her hand without visual cues and fake hands visually stimulated at the same time, the subject feels as if the fake rubber hand is his/her real hand. In general, occurrence of RHI is promoted by hiding subject’s hand. In this paper, we assume that invisible tactile stimulation by AUTD can make RHI stronger without hiding a real hand. We use a tactile projector system that combines both invisible AUTD stimulus and a visible projected image. We show that this configuration enhances RHI.