Understanding natural haptic interaction: investigating haptic feedback in professional virtual reality applications

This dissertation investigates the theoretical foundation of natural interaction with haptic feedback in VR and applies these concepts in the design of VR applications in two diverse application scenarios to enable non-technical professionals to interact with complex 3D content themselves. It extends the current research on haptic feedback and its design by contributing a framework to assess the fidelity and versatility of haptic feedback for VR. It provides researchers and designers of haptic feedback systems with the ability to describe, understand and compare systems. By integrating the fidelity of haptic feedback as an essential part of the overall interaction fidelity, this thesis advances the understanding of natural haptic interactions in VR. The developed concepts are applied to enable intuitive interactions with 3D content in the application domains of previsualization -- the visual planning phase of film, animation, and theater productions and surgical planning -- the preparation for complex surgical interventions. In both application domains, several consecutive works describe the user-centered development of VR-based planning software and integration of tangible objects for interaction to address the unique challenges and requirements of the domain. Two case studies reveal how natural interaction in VR can be applied to the real daily work of a film, animation, and theater production, as well as the preparation for two liver surgeries. Quantitative and qualitative insights from user studies demonstrate how the shape, size, weight, and softness of handheld tangible objects affect the interaction in VR and the resulting user experience.