Abstract
We demonstrate a thermal tactile sensation display that can present various thermal sensations, namely cold/cool/warm/hot feelings, by varying the effective thermal conductivity of the display. Thermal sensation is one of the major tactile sensations and needs to be further investigated for advanced virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) systems. Conventional thermal sensation displays present hot/cold sensations by changing the temperature of the display surface, whereas the proposed display is the first one that controls its effective thermal conductivity. The device contains an air cavity and liquid metal that have low and high thermal conductivity, respectively. When the liquid metal is introduced to fill up the air cavity, the apparent thermal conductivity of the device increases. This difference in the thermal conductivity leads to the users experiencing different thermal tactile sensations. Using this device, the threshold to discriminate the effective thermal conductivity was experimentally deduced for the first time. This thermal tactile display can be a good platform for further study of thermal tactile sensation.
Highlights
Tactile displays have been studied to present pseudo-tactile sensations to users for advanced information communication technologies, such as efficient teleoperation and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]
A magnetorheological fluid was encapsulated inside flexible membranes, whose apparent stiffness could be varied with the external magnetic field [13,14,15]
We demonstrate a thermal tactile sensation display that can vary its thermal conductivity in a wide range and in an analogue manner by controlling its effective thermal conductivity
Summary
Tactile displays have been studied to present pseudo-tactile sensations to users for advanced information communication technologies, such as efficient teleoperation and virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) [1,2,3,4,5,6,7]. An array of micro-actuators can form various surface geometries, and many tactile devices to present various roughness sensation have been proposed, where microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technologies have played an important role [10,11,12]. Note that the thermal sensation is not determined only by the surface temperature, and the thermal conductivity of the objects in contact [25]. As the liquid metal is supplied, it occupies the air cavity and the contact area between the liquid metal and the top plate increases This increases the effective thermal conductivity of the display. The thermal property of this device was experimentally characterized and perception tests were conducted to verify the effectiveness of this thermal tactile display. All the experimental protocols were approved by the Research Ethics Committee of Faculty of Science and Technology, Keio University
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