Tactile Rendering of Textile Materials

Abstract

Tactile rendering attempts to replicate touch stimuli with the aid of haptic devices so that the perception of a material can be stored and transmitted to a remote user. Haptic devices have potential implications on prosthetics, rehabilitation, telemedicine, and virtual reality. Research on haptic interfaces and novel approaches to rendering tactile feedback in virtual and immersive environments has grown recently. We conducted a comprehensive analysis to obtain information on tactile rendering, in general, from scholarly works published between 2009 and 2019. We present a consolidated report on the current techniques on tactile rendering of textile materials. Existing research on tactile rendering focused on three significant areas: surface feature extraction, virtual texture simulation, and assessment by a human observer. We found that in the majority of the cases, the tactile interface system uses a mechatronics framework, where one or more electromechanical transducers converted tiny electrical signals into mechanical forces to generate the necessary haptic stimuli. Furthermore, the paper discusses the prevailing critical challenges in tactile rendering and the directions for future research.