Material Roughness Modulation via Electrotactile Augmentation

Abstract

Tactile exploration of a material's texture using a bare finger pad is a daily human activity. However, modern tactile displays do not allow users to experience the natural sensations of a material when artificial sensations are presented. We propose an electrotactile augmentation technique capable of superimposing vibrotactile sensations in a finger pad, thereby allowing the texture modulation of real materials. Users attach two stimulus electrodes to the middle phalanx of a finger and a grounded electrode at the base of the finger in order to evoke nerve activity. This paper evaluates the proposed electrotactile augmentation for roughness modulation of real materials. First, we introduce the principle of the electrotactile display, which presents artificial sensations at the finger pad. We then confirm that the perceived frequency of mechanical vibration at the finger pad can be shifted using electrotactile augmentation. Finally, we discuss a user study, wherein participants rated the roughness of real materials explored using the proposed system. Experimental results indicate that fine- and macro-roughness perceptions of real materials can be altered using electrotactile augmentation.

Navigation Systems for the Blind and Visually Impaired: Past Work, Challenges, and Open Problems

“…Nowadays the same BrainPort makes a market-available device that shows the feasibility of this haptic technology for some applications. In addition, over the years, subsequent prototypes have strived for various improvements, such as combining electrotactile technology with mechanical stimuli [102,103], stabilizing the transcutaneous electrode‒neuron electrical contact, albeit with closed-loop designs [104], or micro-needle interfaces [105,106], etc. Furthermore, the neural stimulation theoretical basis continues to advance through research in related fields, e.g., when developing myoelectric prostheses that provide a sense of touch via the electrical stimulation of afferent nerves.…”

Tactile Echoes: A Wearable System for Tactile Augmentation of Objects

“…Many methods have been used to investigate the perception of rendered haptic feedback or effects [24], [25], [26]. In the Tactile Echoes system, the feedback is not designed to correspond to natural sensations.…”

Tacttoo

“…We also drew inspiration from flexible on-skin interfaces [40,64,46,65] which contain sensors and displays (but not tactile output) that are thin enough to allow the user to feel-through natural tactile body landmarks [65,57]. Indirect tactile actuation technologies [5,71,69] do not need to overlay the interaction area and hence provide an alternative to feel-through interfaces. In contrast, our proposed feel-through tactile interfaces enable high-density output to capitalize on the tactile acuity of human skin, can be deployed on a wide range of body locations, and at a 35µm thickness, allow users to feel external tactile stimuli through the device.…”

“…For example, the spatial acuity could be leveraged to render shapes, directions, and locations [7,4]. In addition, frequency of stimuli could be used to manipulate the perception of tactile features [71].…”

“…In augmented reality (AR), see-through and hear-through interfaces have been key enablers to realize visual and auditory augmentation of the environment [8,45]. In contrast, tactile augmentation remains underexplored, with only few approaches presented so far [5,71]. The tactile feel-through property of Tacttoo enables us to seamlessly align real-world and virtual tactile stimuli on a physical object, creating Tactile Augmented Reality (TAR) applications [3].…”