Abstract
Improving the tactile aesthetics of products that can be described as touch intensive is an increasing priority within many sectors, including the furniture industry. Understanding which physical characteristics contribute to the haptic experience of a surface, and how, is therefore highly topical. It has earlier been shown that both friction and topography affect tactile perception. Thus, two series of stimuli have been produced using standard coating techniques, with systematic variation in (physical) friction and roughness properties. This was achieved through appropriate selection of matting agents and resins. The stimuli sets were then evaluated perceptually to determine the extent to which discrimination between pairs of surfaces followed the systematic materials variation. In addition to investigating the role of the physical properties in discrimination of the surfaces, their influence on perceived pleasantness and naturalness was also studied. The results indicate that changes in tactile perception can be understood in terms of friction and roughness, and that varying the matting agents (topography) and resins (material properties) in the coatings provide the controlling factors for furniture applications. Perceived pleasantness is associated with low friction and smoother topography, whilst perceived naturalness is found to be described by an interaction between tactile friction and the average maximum peak height of the surface features.Graphic
Highlights
Understanding which factors contribute to the haptic experience of a surface is important; none of our other senses interact so persistently with our surroundings
To demonstrate the respective variation in these variables, every surface in the two series is plotted in Fig. 2 in terms of the friction coefficient and the average maximum peak heights of the roughness profile (Rp)
It can be seen that Series 1 varied mainly in terms of the tactile friction coefficient, whilst Series 2 showed a significant spread in roughness and less variation in tactile friction coefficient
Summary
Understanding which factors contribute to the haptic experience of a surface is important; none of our other senses interact so persistently with our surroundings. Crucial to the implementation of a quality control protocol based on haptic properties, the effects of changes to physical parameters that contribute to the haptic perception of surfaces for furniture solutions are not yet fully understood. The resultant haptic experience is affected by deformation of the skin due to pressure and lateral movement [3, 4], the topography of the surface [5], the frictional forces [6] as well as mechanical vibrations induced by sliding the finger [7,8,9,10]. It is clear that tribology, or Psychotribology [12], plays an important role in the understanding of tactile perception as a whole
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