Identifying errors in tactile displays and best practice usage guidelines

Abstract

Wearable tactile cueing provides a significant opportunity for performance and safety improvement during human-in-the-loop tasks. However, wearable technology and the human factors associated with tactile cueing presents specific challenges and many pathways for potential errors. This paper reviews tactile cueing displays, usage characteristics and identifies potential error pathways. We use a model for tactile salience to describe adaptive cueing and case-specific examples of potential errors. We propose that tactile designers work towards intelligent systems that recognize user responses, adapt the tactile signal characteristics and close the loop between the display and the task.