4×4 Fingertip Tactile Matrix Actuator with Edge Detection Scanning ROI Simulator

This study presents a novel 4×4 fingertip tactile matrix actuator that can be strapped on a finger. It is made from Dot Braille cells purchased from Dot Inc., Korea. The prototype has a surface area of 1.08 cm2 with a pin pitch of 2.6 mm and operates at 5V supply. Each tactile pin can be controlled using an h-bridge motor driver and Arduino microcontroller. The tactile matrix is coupled with a tactile matrix simulator that scans a binary image or edges of an image using Canny edge detector. The simulator has 16 sections corresponding to the 16 actuator pins. The integration of the simulator to the hardware prototype allows the user to feel a binary image of a plane geometric figure or to feel the edges of an image as the scanning region of interest (ROI) moves across the visual screen. This fingertip tactile matrix display would be useful in many Virtual Reality (VR) applications to provide tactile feedback on the textures of virtual objects. Therefore, the authors suggest that this device will be beneficial in many applications such as virtual surgery, virtual fashion, remote sensing, and telerobotics.