Virtual Contact: the Continuum from Purely Visual to Purely Physical

Providing appropriate cues to users when interacting with objects in immersive virtual environments (IVEs) is a difficult task. In addition to individual user differences, environmental factors, and task-specific requirements, the technological complexity of the current state of the art in haptic feedback further increases the difficulty. Though the technology continues to improve, we are still a long way from having haptic feedback that meets the demands of a "general solution" to the problem. This paper focuses on ways of providing effective contact cues in IVEs, starting with purely-visual approaches and moving along a continuum to the use of actual physical objects as high-fidelity interfaces.