ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Virtual Real.
Sec. Haptics
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frvir.2025.1617481
Pain Intensity Control in Virtual Reality via Modulated Cooling Rates in Thermal Grill Illusion
Provisionally accepted
- 1Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
- 2Department of Applied Physics, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Tōkyō, Japan
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As virtual reality (VR) technology advances, the need for realistic pain presentation to enhance immersion grows. The thermal grill illusion (TGI), which elicits a burning sensation through the simultaneous application of warm and cold stimuli, has emerged as a promising technique. To apply TGI in VR for pain intensity control, clarifying the relationship between stimulus parameters and perceptual intensity is crucial. In this study, we constructed a TGI display using six thermoelectric devices and conducted two user experiments. The first experiment investigated the relationship between the cooling rate of cold stimuli and TGI-induced pain intensity. Results indicated that faster cooling rates intensified perceived pain. The second experiment implemented pain intensity control in a VR environment. As a result, six out of seven participants reported that the perceived intensity of pain changed in response to the changes in the VR stimuli. Our findings demonstrate that manipulating the cooling rate can effectively control pain intensity in VR, enhancing the realism and immersion of VR experiences
Keywords: thermal grill illusion, control of pain intensity, virtual reality, haptic display, Cooling rate
Received: 24 Apr 2025; Accepted: 20 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Hori, Liu, Igarashi and Sawada. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Shinnosuke Hori, Department of Pure and Applied Physics, Graduate School of Advanced Science and Engineering, Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan
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