Abstract
This article investigated the localization ability of an impulse vibration source outside the body in two-dimensional space. We tested whether humans can recognize the direction or distance of an impulse vibration source when using their hand to detect spatiotemporal vibrotactile information provided by the propagated vibrational wave from the source. Specifically, we had users put their hands on a silicone rubber sheet in several postures. We asked users to indicate the position of the vibration source when a location on the sheet was indented. Experimental results suggested that the direction of the impact vibration source can be recognized to some extent, although recognition accuracy depends on hand posture and the position of the vibration source. The best results were achieved when the fingers and palm were grounded and a vibration source was presented around the middle fingertip, and the directional recognition error in this case was 6 °. In contrast, results suggest it is difficult to accurately recognize the distance of the vibration. The results of this study suggest a new possibility for directional display where vibrotactile actuators are embedded at a distance from the user's hand.
Highlights
This study investigated the localization ability of an impulse vibration source outside the body in two-dimensional space
Considering that sound is the perceptual result of mechanical vibrations traveling through a medium such as air, we hypothesized that humans could identify vibration sources outside the body with the ear and with the hand’s vibrotactile sense
When we ride in cars, the visual and auditory channels are not vacant, and recent research is increasingly focusing on the presentation of spatial information using the vibrotactile channel [9], [10]
Summary
HE human auditory system can identify both the direction and distance of sound sources [1], [2]. These problems are unavoidable when the vibrotactile actuators are in contact with the body This study explores another possibility of presenting spatial information from vibration sources that are remotely placed from the user’s body. In this setup, it is not necessary to contact the vibrotactile actuators to the body, and the problem of the layout of the vibrating actuator in a limited. Space and the problem of heat are alleviated In this case, the localized vibrator source position information emanating from outside the hand might indicate the direction and distance from the hand. We introduce previous studies on vibration localization on the body’s surface and localization outside the body, and we clarify differences from our study
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