A study of perception using mobile device for multi-haptic feedback

Abstract

As developments are made to mobile devices, advances are also made to vibration feedback technology to help visually impaired and elderly users. At present, mobile devices still use motor technology to provide vibration feedback. Therefore, in order to explore the possible applications of motor vibration feedback, two experiments were carried out in this study. In both of the experiments, four motors were used. In the first experiment, four motors were installed in each corner of two prototype devices of different sizes (5.5 inches and 9.7 inches). These devices were placed on top of a desk and the motors were randomly activated. The subjects then touched the center of the prototypes with their index finger, and had to identify which motor was vibrating. The results showed that age difference had a significant difference in the perception of the vibration position, but the difference between the two sizes was not significant. The second experiment compared the perception of the vibration position in hand-held devices by using a 5.5-inch prototype. The results showed that the different age groups showed a minor difference in how the prototype was used. However, the different ways of using the prototype had a significant difference in the identification of the vibration position.