Discriminating between intensities and velocities of mid-air haptic patterns

Abstract

This study investigates people’s ability in discriminating between different intensities and velocities of mid-air haptic (MAH) sensations. Apart from estimating the just noticeable differences (JND), we also investigated the impact of age on discrimination performance, and the relationship between someone’s confidence in his/her performance and the actual discrimination performance. In an experimental set-up, involving 50 participants, we obtained a JND of 12.12% for intensities and 0.51 rev/s for velocities. Surprisingly, the impact of age on discrimination performance was only small and almost negligible. Furthermore, participants’ subjective perception of their discrimination performance aligned well with their actual discrimination performance. These results are encouraging for the use of intensities and velocities as dimensions in the design of MAH patterns to convey information to the user.