Investigation of Tactile Illusion Based on Gestalt Theory

Hiraku Komura,Masahiro Ohka,Toshiki Nakamura

doi:10.3390/philosophies6030060

Hiraku Komura, Masahiro Ohka + Show 1 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/philosophies6030060

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Abstract

Time-evolving tactile sensations are important in communication between animals as well as humans. In recent years, this research area has been defined as “tactileology,” and various studies have been conducted. This study utilized the tactile Gestalt theory to investigate these sensations. Since humans recognize shapes with their visual sense and melodies with their auditory sense based on the Prägnanz principle in the Gestalt theory, this study assumed that a time-evolving texture sensation is induced by a tactile Gestalt. Therefore, the operation of such a tactile Gestalt was investigated. Two psychophysical experiments were conducted to clarify the operation of a tactile Gestalt using a tactile illusion phenomenon called the velvet hand illusion (VHI). It was confirmed that the VHI is induced in a tactile Gestalt when the laws of closure and common fate are satisfied. Furthermore, it was clarified that the tactile Gestalt could be formulated using the proposed factors, which included the laws of elasticity and translation, and it had the same properties as a visual Gestalt. For example, the strongest Gestalt factor had the highest priority among multiple competing factors.

Highlights

The human tactile sense plays an important role in sensing the external environment and in communication
To consider tactileology based on a tactile Gestalt, this study explored tactile illusion phenomena such as the velvet hand illusion (VHI) [8] because it was assumed that the VHI
Experimental Results and Discussion common fate is indispensable. It was unclear whether the law of closure was Considering the principle of Prägnanz, the VHI might be related to the laws of closure necessary to generate the VHI

Summary

Introduction

The human tactile sense plays an important role in sensing the external environment and in communication. Tactile researchers have focused on the former, including efforts to understand how humans detect an object in their environment and perceive it as a subjective tactile sensation. Various types of actuators have been developed for tactile displays [1]. There has been little systematic research on communication via the tactile sense. When considering communication via the sense of touch, it seems necessary to consider the time evolution of the tactile sensation. The term “tactileology” was suggested by Suzuki to define the new interdisciplinary research field of time-evolutional tactile sensation [3]. To advance this research field, this study attempted to clarify the effects of a time-varying input on a human

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