A breeze enhances presence in a virtual environment

Typically virtual environments are created with visual and auditory stimuli. Less often, haptic stimulation is included as well, usually in the form of force-feedback and tactile manipulators. Another possible source of haptic stimulation is moving air. In order to generate a breeze in a virtual environment, we created a breeze cannon from readily-available components. We compared four conditions: no breeze, self-generated breeze, object-generated breeze and nature-generated breeze. Participants reported feeling more immersed in the virtual environment when the breeze was caused by their own movement. Anecdotal results also suggest that moving air may help decrease simulator sickness.