Evaluating ultrasonic tactile feedback stimuli

Abstract

Ultrasonic tactile stimulation can give the user contactless tactile feedback in a variety of human-computer interfaces. Parameters, such as duration, rhythm, and intensity, can be used to encode information into tactile sensation. The present aim was to investigate the differentiation of six ultrasonic tactile stimulations that were varied by form (i.e., square and circle) and timing (i.e., movement speed and duration, and the number of repetitions). Following a stimulus familiarization task participants (N = 16) were to identify the stimuli presented in the same order as in the familiarization phase. Overall, the results showed that it was significantly easier to identify stimuli that were rendered at a slower pace (i.e., longer duration) regardless of the number of repetitions. Thus, for ultrasonic haptics, rendering time was one important factor for easy identification.