Inducing vibro-tactile sensation at mesoscale

Abstract

Haptics, the feeling of touch, has primarily been used to provide a person a general sensation such as vibration using a joystick or cellphone. But haptics has gradually developed to a stage where it is investigated for virtual and augmented reality environments. Vibro-tactile based feedback is a modality employed to provide a more realistic and localized sensation. This research focuses primarily on providing vibro-tactile feedback at the mesoscale level on the fingertips. A research platform for mesoscale vibro-tactile feedback has been investigated and developed. The software is based on LabVIEW and could generate a number of different and distinct waveform patterns to control and actuate a set of shaft-less actuators on a wearable glove. This platform has been used to study and determine the parameters that affect the vibro-tactile sensation for a set of volunteers. The results of the initial study indicate that with proper training the waveform characteristics of frequency and amplitude, and the combination of waveform patterns could be employed for controlled vibro-tactile sensation associated with a specific action or task.