Vibrotactile sensation thresholds related to parameters of a pulse burst stimulus

Abstract

An experimental study is presented showing the effect of pulse burst stimulus parameters, pulse repetition rate and duty cycle on vibrotactile sensation thresholds. A piezoceramic vibrator is used to measure sensation thresholds on the index finger. In a group of 10 subjects, the sensation thresholds were determined for a short duty cycle and a 50% duty cycle waveform as a function of pulse repetition rate. It is found no statistical significant differences in thresholds for different pulse repetition rates and also no statistical significant differences among short duty cycle and 50% duty cycle waveforms. These results indicate that power consumption may be reduced by using short duty cycle waveform instead of 50% duty cycle. As sensation thresholds do not depend significantly on the pulse repetition period, the spatial discrimination capacity of the tactile system could be used to select a proper repetition period for the vibrotactile excitation.