A micro tactile transceiver for fingertip motion recognition and texture generation

Abstract

We present a micro tactile information transceiver that recognizes user's fingertip motion (direction/selection) input and generates artificial texture output using frictional-force tunable slider-pad. The proposed micro tactile transceiver offers capacitive detection of human gesture input and simultaneous generation of frictional force and vibration by electrostatic attraction of slider-pad. In the experimental study, we verified the tactile input recognition performance by measuring the capacitance changes for the z-axis (selection) and x-/y-axis (direction) movement, which were 0.146±0.02nF/40μm and 0.03±0.02nF/250μm, respectively. We also verified the artificial texture generation performance by measuring frictional force and lateral vibration by controlling the electrostatic force between slider-pad and electrode layer. The frictional force was measured in the range of 32–152mN under 0–80V DC input voltages, offering the lateral force on skin in the range of 121–580mN combined with spring force. We applied AC voltage to induce fluctuating frictional force to generate lateral vibration on the skin, and obtained peak-to-peak fluctuation of 128.1±0.8mN under 3Hz/60V which is a 32% improved value compared to previous approaches. The proposed micro tactile information transceiver is capable of recognizing human gesture information (direction/selection) and generating the artificial texture information.