Coupling gestures with tactile feedback: a comparative user study

Abstract

This paper sheds some new light on an experimental evaluation in the field of tactile feedback generation on Smartphone. Tactile feedback on current mobile devices is actually limited therefore we explore using dynamic tactile feedback to improve gesture provision. The main objective is to better understand issues related to touch interactions coupled with tactile feedback. We investigate three dynamic models based on gesture properties in a formal experiment with 24 participants. A fourth uniform feedback model is used as a decoy model. We use a model based on the tension of a spring, a model based on the torque force of a knob and a model based on the gesture curvature. The results evaluate the advantages and drawbacks of each tactile feedback model in an initial reproduction task of reference shapes. The experiment shows dynamic feedback models have some effects on the complexity and the type of gesture. Coupling tactile feedback during user interactions offers good guidance and even more when the tactile model uses the kinetic properties of the user gestures. The subjective evaluations show that the preferred tactile feedback model by the user is the tension of a spring. This pilot evaluation may serve as a reference for future researches in touch based interfaces.