Qisong Wang

About

I completed my PhD in the Department of Engineering at the University of Cambridge, supervised by Professor Per Ola Kristensson, studying how people perceive and use force feedback in virtual reality. My research combines psychophysical experiments with behavioural analysis to produce quantitative benchmarks that XR designers can apply directly. Since the PhD I have been working on automatic sleep staging, building deep-learning models for physiological time series.

Research

Perceptual thresholds for virtual stiffness

With force-feedback gloves, users needed stiffness changes of 26–48% to reliably distinguish virtual materials, well above the 8–22% reported for bare-finger interaction. Weber fractions varied 1.8:1 across reference stiffness levels, violating Weber’s Law, and discrimination accuracy depended on where in the workspace the hand was. Measured with 23 participants using adaptive staircases and psychometric curve fitting, these thresholds give designers concrete lower bounds for rendering perceivable stiffness differences. Published in IEEE TVCG and presented at IEEE VR 2026.

How force feedback changes user behaviour

In a 52-participant experiment on virtual tool manipulation, force feedback reduced the share of users who over-grip from 73% to 4% and cut applied grip force by 12–13%, but did not improve task speed and increased cognitive load. Cluster analysis of the behavioural data identified three distinct control strategies (optimal controllers 48%, over-grippers 38%, variable controllers 13%), showing that one-size-fits-all haptic rendering underserves most users and motivating user-adaptive interaction.

Iterating a VR rehabilitation system on user data

I designed and built a home VR hand-rehabilitation system that combines force-feedback gloves with game mechanics, then iterated it across two user studies and assessment by three physical therapists. Between system iterations, simulator sickness scores fell by 49% and user engagement improved, demonstrating the viability of home-based haptic rehabilitation. Published at IEEE VR 2022.

Publications

Q. Wang and P. O. Kristensson. Stiffness Discrimination Thresholds of Force-Feedback Gloves for Volumetric Data Exploration in Virtual Reality. IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics, 32(5), 4565–4574, 2026. Presented at IEEE VR 2026, Daegu, South Korea. doi:10.1109/TVCG.2026.3680713
Q. Wang and P. O. Kristensson. Investigating How Force Feedback Affects User Behavior in Virtual Tool Manipulation. Manuscript in preparation.
Q. Wang, B. Kang, and P. O. Kristensson. Supporting Playful Rehabilitation in the Home using Virtual Reality Headsets and Force Feedback Gloves. IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces (IEEE VR), 504–513, 2022. doi:10.1109/VR51125.2022.00070
Q. Wang, B. Kang, and P. O. Kristensson. Supporting Physical and Mental Health Rehabilitation at Home with Virtual Reality Headsets and Force Feedback Gloves. IEEE VR Abstracts and Workshops (VRW), 685–686, 2021. doi:10.1109/VRW52623.2021.00225

Thesis

Enhancing Virtual Reality Interactions through Force Feedback: Perception, Tools, and Therapeutic Applications. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge, 2026. Open access in the Apollo repository, doi:10.17863/CAM.130300.