Time Constant Discrimination of Collision Vibration

Abstract

When we tap on the surface of the objects, damped collision vibrations occur. We can distinguish the materials by the perception of these collision vibrations. However, the discrimination ability is limited and unclear. This study investigated Just Noticeable Difference (JND) of the time constant, which is a reasonable factor relating for discriminating collision vibrations. We conducted psychophysical experiments to evaluate JNDs for two referenced time constants (10.8 and 50 ms) among five frequencies (150, 250, 500, 800 and 1000 Hz). The results showed that there were significant differences among reference time constant and we should use large step rate at the low time constant range.