Does the Projected-Hand-Illusion Help in Teleoperation?

A body illusion, commonly known in the form of the “Rubber Hand Illusion”, is an illusion wherein visual inputs on an inanimate object and simultaneous tactile inputs on a part of the body lead to a situation where the inanimate object is identified as the body part. This study investigated the possibility of inducing a body illusion during a teleoperated reaching task, to see if this leads to increased telepresence and improved accuracy. Three conditions were presented in random order; the Direct Control (DC) condition, where the participant’s hand is shown on the screen, the Projected Hand Illusion (PHI) condition, showing the slave device consisting of a 3D-printed hand designed to induce a body illusion, and the no Projected Hand Illusion (nPHI) condition, showing the slave device consisting of a 3D-printed object of appropriate shape but designed to not induce a body illusion. Reaching performance was interpreted in terms of position error, for which a significant difference was found between conditions PHI and nPHI. In the nPHI condition, participants kept more distance to the obstacle than in the PHI condition. Potential causes for this difference are an increased perception of risk due to a difference in visual perception, or subtle visual differences in between the two conditions.