Abstract
There is a steadily growing number of mobile communication systems that provide spatially encoded tactile information to the humans’ torso. However, the increased use of such hands-off displays is currently not matched with or supported by systematic perceptual characterization of tactile spatial discrimination on the torso. Furthermore, there are currently no data testing spatial discrimination for dynamic force stimuli applied to the torso. In the present study, we measured tactile point localization (LOC) and tactile direction discrimination (DIR) on the thoracic spine using two unisex torso-worn tactile vests realized with arrays of 3 × 3 vibrotactile or force feedback actuators. We aimed to, first, evaluate and compare the spatial discrimination of vibrotactile and force stimulations on the thoracic spine and, second, to investigate the relationship between the LOC and DIR results across stimulations. Thirty-four healthy participants performed both tasks with both vests. Tactile accuracies for vibrotactile and force stimulations were 60.7% and 54.6% for the LOC task; 71.0% and 67.7% for the DIR task, respectively. Performance correlated positively with both stimulations, although accuracies were higher for the vibrotactile than for the force stimulation across tasks, arguably due to specific properties of vibrotactile stimulations. We observed comparable directional anisotropies in the LOC results for both stimulations; however, anisotropies in the DIR task were only observed with vibrotactile stimulations. We discuss our findings with respect to tactile perception research as well as their implications for the design of high-resolution torso-mounted tactile displays for spatial cueing.
Highlights
As the human torso provides an extensive skin area to convey tactile information, torso-worn haptic displays deploying tactile spatial cues have gained increasing attention in recent years (Rupert 2000; Lemmens et al 2009; Arafsha et al 2015; Lentini et al 2016; Wacker et al 2016; Buimer et al 2018; Garcia-Valle et al 2018)
Previous studies investigated the spatial discrimination of vibration stimuli on the back, our study is the first to investigate both localization and tactile direction discrimination of the upper thoracic spine for two different types of dynamic mechanical stimulations in a large group of healthy participants
Our findings suggest that designers can use force stimulators to design the torso-worn tactile interface to provide more ecological touch feedback with the similar level of tactile spatial discrimination accuracy as observed in widespread vibrotactile interfaces
Summary
As the human torso provides an extensive skin area to convey tactile information, torso-worn haptic displays deploying tactile spatial cues have gained increasing attention in recent years (Rupert 2000; Lemmens et al 2009; Arafsha et al 2015; Lentini et al 2016; Wacker et al 2016; Buimer et al 2018; Garcia-Valle et al 2018). Experimental Brain Research (2021) 239:3175–3188 applications of torso-based tactile displays that provide spatially encoded tactile information, two general aspects of the tactile spatial discrimination are often tested: how well can a user spatially localize contacts on the torso? We describe new haptic touch systems and focus our investigation on assessing tactile spatial discrimination of the human torso
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