Haptic Scene Analysis: Mechanical Property Separation Despite Parasitic Dynamics

The physical mass and damping of a haptic device contribute features that can be considered parasitic in that they potentially mask the virtual environment the user is intended to feel. On the other hand, users are generally able to adapt to the mechanical properties of physical tools and concentrate on the dynamics of task objects in the environment. It would be unsurprising, then, if humans were also able to ignore parasitic effects and focus on the mechanical properties of interest within a rendered environment. In this work, we explore a particular parasitic effect (damping) and its impact on the perception of stiffness. We examine the various perceptual impacts of predictable or unpredictable levels of damping. We find that, overall, humans are quite capable of ignoring damping to focus on stiffness, but that this ability may be hampered in the presence of unpredictable damping.