Design of Low-Profile Tactile Actuator with Rich Vibrotactile Stimulation For Wearable Applications

Vibrotactile stimulation is becoming more popular in haptic applications due to its simplicity, cost-effectiveness, and the ability to be used in wearable/flexible devices. Traditional vibrotactile actuators are either low-cost with limited expressiveness of vibration cues or high-cost with great expressiveness. We designed, characterized, and perceptually evaluated a low-profile, low-cost vibrotactile actuator that can control frequency and intensity of vibration independently. The actuator characterization demonstrated its ability to display frequencies in a perceptually flat response for the frequency band (110-300 Hz). Furthermore, the vibration intensity can be controlled independently in the same frequency band (110–300Hz), producing a flat response. A psychophysics experiment is conducted to validate the perceptual capabilities of the actuator. It is found that the actuator can display perceptually distinct stimulation across the defined frequency and intensity bands. The proposed actuators can be used to develop ubiquitous vibrotactile stimulation with high expressivity at low cost.