VibroMap

Abstract

In spite of the great potential of on-body vibrotactile displays for a variety of applications, research lacks an understanding of the spacing between vibrotactile actuators. Through two experiments, we systematically investigate vibrotactile perception on the wrist, forearm, upper arm, back, torso, thigh, and leg, each in transverse and longitudinal body orientation. In the first experiment, we address the maximum distance between vibration motors that still preserves the ability to generate phantom sensations. In the second experiment, we investigate the perceptual accuracy of localizing vibrations in order to establish the minimum distance between vibration motors. Based on the results, we derive VibroMap, a spatial map of the functional range of inter-motor distances across the body. VibroMap supports hardware and interaction designers with design guidelines for constructing body-worn vibrotactile displays.

Phantom Illusion Based Vibrotactile Rendering of Affective Touch Patterns

“…The dimensions of the armband were determined by the distance between the actuators, which in turn were taken from [47]. It was ensured that the distance between the actuators in the longitudinal direction and in the circumferential direction were within a secure range for the PI.…”

“…It was ensured that the distance between the actuators in the longitudinal direction and in the circumferential direction were within a secure range for the PI. The diagonal distance between the actuators was chosen to be slightly below the maximum two-point threshold on the forearm (as taken from [47]). We ensured sufficient space between the actuators to eliminate possible interference among each other.…”

Impact of supplementary sensory feedback on the control and embodiment in human movement augmentation

“…Relaying SRL feedback on the upper limbs, however, has an important drawback since it could interfere with natural proprioception of a body part that could be used concurrently (e.g., tri-manual manipulation or three-tools surgical assistance). For this reason, several authors preferred to place haptic stimulators on the lower back 122 , feet soles 123 , 124 or legs 84 , 125 , 126 , since previous results demonstrated that complex haptic stimulations can be successfully delivered to lower limbs as well 127 – 129 .…”

An Integrated Teleoperation Assistance System for Collision Avoidance of High-speed UAVs in Complex Environments

“…Each actuator was positioned equidistantly from its neighbors, with 18 actuators on the front and back, 3 on each side of the waist, and 2 on each shoulder. Following VibroMap [29], the inter-actuator distances were about 8 cm.…”