Factors Underpinning Array-vibrotactile Stimuli Integration on the Human Wrist

We present a comparative study of three modes of array-vibroactuators worn on the wrist to understand the factors of providing magnitude of a signal represented by a) a proportional frequency applied across a fixed number of actuators MA, b) a fixed frequency applied across a proportional number of actuators ML, and c)both frequency and the number of actuators being proportional to the signal magnitude MI. We first investigated the accuracy in localization tasks of right hand dominant participants, to test whether participants can distinguish between different vibro-actuator positions around the wrist.

Secondly, we investigated whether there is a bias in perceptual accuracy for clockwise or counter clockwise presentation of vibration signals. Thirdly, we looked at perceptual response of participants with different step input signals for each proposed mode. Finally, we investigated the response for the three modes to sinusoidal input profiles with different magnitudes and periods.