Tactile Feedback Within Virtual Reality Training: An Immersive Study for Motorcycle Training

Motorcyclists are affiliated with higher fatality rates than drivers as motorcycles are more physically demanding due to their innate design. As virtual reality (VR) is being used to train professionals in numerous industries, it may be a potential training tool for novice trainees. Specific levels of tactile feedback have been seen to increase performance of specific skill in VR, although research on the effects of tactile feedback within the domain of motorcycle training and VR have not yet been investigated. To investigate the addition of tactile feedback on operator performance in VR, three groups of participants were trained on three different VR simulators with each differing in levels of tactile feedback. Low levels of tactile feedback contribute to better performance in motorcycle training, while higher levels of tactile feedback increase immersiveness, encouraging participants to treat the virtual reality simulation more as a training tool and less as a game.