How important is the timing of vibrotactile stimuli for the excitation of an emotional response for audio-visual content?

In this study, we investigated the effect of the timing of vibrotactile stimuli in the context of audio-visual content, on feeling of viewers. We used videos of figure skating performances, and vibrotactile stimuli were supplied to the upper body of the viewer using voicecoil motors, according to the jump scenes in the videos. The increase in skin conductance of the palm in response to the experience was measured, and the experimental participants scored their level of excitement with a questionnaire. We performed experiments under conditions with and without the vibrotactile stimuli. For the vibrotactile conditions, the timing of the vibrotactile stimuli was varied by 200 ms. The increases in the skin conductance and the questionnaire scores in the vibrotactile conditions were significantly high compared to those in the non-vibrotactile condition. However, the timing of the vibrotactile stimuli had no marked effect on these values.