Effect of Dynamic Vibrotactile Feedback on the Control of Isometric Finger Force

Abstract

This study investigates how controllability of force is influenced by concurrent vibrotactile feedback that is generated proportionally to the applied force. Three different models to provide tactile feedback are introduced: amplitude and frequency modulation and granular synthesis. Then, an experiment investigating the effect of the feedback models on force control is reported. The tactile feedback conditions were compared to each other and to a condition with no feedback in a force repetition and a force hold tasks. In the force repetition task, all the feedback conditions yielded significantly better accuracy compared to no feedback condition. In the force hold task, there was no difference in the accuracy between the conditions including the no feedback condition. The results suggest that dynamic vibrotactile feedback assists the force control in force repetition tasks.

Influence of Piano Key Vibration Level on Players’ Perception and Performance in Piano Playing

“…We can not exclude that such an influence exists but with the proposed measures, "amount of adaption" and repeatability, we could not measure such a relation. Furthermore, the basic results of Ahmaniemi [2], that vibrotactile feedback assists the precise control of finger forces could not be confirmed in our case. For future studies, we suggest to include a larger number of participants.…”

“…Therefore, the vibration levels of our experiments do not have a conclusive influence on the pianists' repeatability, and the measured MIDI data do not support the hypothesis that key vibrations assist the precise control of finger force. Consequently the observations do not confirm the results of Ahmaniemi [2] or Galica et al [19], for the piano playing case. Galica et al [19] showed that even unconscious vibratory stimulation applied to the soles of the feet can cause lower variance in kinematic interactions.…”

“…This closed-loop model implies that if the instrument's feedback is altered, the pianist will adapt his or her playing to compensate for and retain the desired instrument behavior. Vibrotactile feedback can support the precise control of finger force, as shown by Ahmaniemi [2] with a basic force repetition experiment on a rigid sensor box. Furthermore, Goebl and Palmer [3] demonstrated that tactile sensations from the finger-key surface interaction support some pianists to improve timing accuracy and precision of finger movements.…”

Vibrotactile sensitivity in active finger pressing

“…A difference in the standard deviations would indicate an effect of the vibrotactile stimulus on pressing force stability. Previous studies report increased pressing force accuracy when the task is augmented by a vibrotactile stimulus corresponding to the applied force [2], [19]. However in our study the experimental task was different, and the vibrotactile stimulus was independent of the applied force.…”

Dynamic edge

“…We also integrated the processor (Arduino Nano) and electronics needed to process the sensor data locally and synthesize the tangible virtual controls, in the form of vibrotactile signals, using the Mozzi 4 library. Following the research on dynamic feedback in [1], we then programmed two methods to synthesize and convey the tangible virtual controls:…”