The effects of vibrotactile directions and touch methods on human tactile perceptions

Abstract

In recent years, the utilization of tactile feedback in human–computer interfaces has gained substantial attention. Among various tactile displays, vibrotactile displays are commonly regarded as the most widely used. Nevertheless, there is limited research investigating the impacts of vibration directions and touch methods on human tactile perceptions. This study aims to address this research gap by exploring the impacts of both normal and lateral vibration directions, as well as passive and active touch methods, on human tactile perceptions. Two tactile perception experiments were conducted at frequencies of 150 Hz, 200 Hz, 250 Hz, and 300 Hz. The experimental results show that for the same displacements, lateral vibrations are significantly more perceivable than normal vibrations for both passive and active touches, except at 150 Hz for passive touch. However, the normal vibrotactile perceivable thresholds are significantly lower than those for lateral vibrations for both passive and active methods. This study also surprisingly found that the most sensitive frequency for lateral vibration is around 150 Hz and 200 Hz, which is about 50–100 Hz lower than that for normal vibration. These findings can help us understand how different vibration directions and touch methods affect human tactile perception, which are important factors in designing tactile human–computer interfaces.