Perceptual space and adjective rating of sinusoidal vibrations perceived via mobile device

In the past five years, how to utilize the haptics technology in the mobile device to improve its limited user interface has emerged as an attractive research topic. In this paper, we report two kinds of perceptual data related to vibrotactile signals perceived through a mobile device held in the hand. In Experiment I, we estimated perceptual dissimilarities between sinusoidal vibrations with seven frequencies in 40–250 Hz and two amplitudes of 30 and 40 dB SL. Multi-dimensional scaling was then applied to the perceptual distances, and led to a two-dimensional perceptual space. In the perceptual space, the vibrations of the two amplitudes formed distinct groups. The two groups showed similar structures with respect to the frequency variation. In particular, two perceptual dimensions that spanned a low frequency range (40–100 Hz) and a high frequency range (100–250 Hz) were close to be orthogonal. In Experiment II, we evaluated the subjective qualities of sinusoidal vibrations with different frequencies via adjective rating. Thirteen adjective pairs were carefully selected, and rated for the sinusoidal vibrations played through the mobile device. The results were regressed to the perceptual space, revealing several adjective pairs that can largely account for the distributions of vibration points in the perceptual space, such as ‘dark-bright,’ ‘dull-clear,’ ‘slow-fast,’ ‘vague-distinct,’ ‘thick-thin,’ and ‘heavy-light.’ The findings of this paper can help understand the perceptual characteristics and subjective impressions of mobile device vibrations.