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VirCHEW Reality

VirCHEW Reality: On-Face Kinesthetic Feedback for Enhancing Food-Intake Experience in Virtual Reality

Qingqin Liu, Ziqi Fang, Jiayi Wu, Shaoyu Cai, Jianhui Yan, Tiande Mo, Shuk Ching Chan, Kening Zhu

ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 Conference Papers · Vancouver, Canada

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Figure 1: VirCHEW Reality pneumatic face-worn device, VR scene, jaw tracking, and air-control system
Figure 1. VirCHEW Reality combines a face-worn pneumatic mechanism, jaw-motion tracking, air-pressure control, and a VR eating scene.

Overview

VirCHEW Reality is a face-worn haptic interface that provides kinesthetic feedback during virtual chewing. It explores how forces applied around the face can convey food-texture properties without requiring physical food as a proxy.

How it works

  1. A pneumatic system controls inflation and deflation in syringe-based air chambers to generate forces during jaw movement.
  2. A joystick tracks jaw motion, while air-pressure sensing and control coordinate the feedback with the virtual eating experience.
  3. Different force patterns convey aspects of hardness, cohesiveness, and stickiness during chewing.

Evaluation & findings

Three studies examined distinguishable force levels, the correspondence between feedback and perceived food textures, and a VR eating experience. The system supported three distinguishable stimulus levels during jaw opening and closing. In the VR study, participants rated their sense of presence higher with kinesthetic feedback than without haptic feedback.

Takeaway

On-face kinesthetic feedback offers a way to enrich virtual eating through the mechanics of chewing, alongside visual and other sensory cues.

Publication

Qingqin Liu, Ziqi Fang, Jiayi Wu, Shaoyu Cai, Jianhui Yan, Tiande Mo, Shuk Ching Chan, Kening Zhu. VirCHEW Reality: On-Face Kinesthetic Feedback for Enhancing Food-Intake Experience in Virtual Reality. ACM SIGGRAPH 2025 Conference Papers · Vancouver, Canada. DOI: 10.1145/3721238.3730694.