Presenting tactile stroking sensations from a touch screen using the cutaneous rabbit illusion

Information presentation through tactile sensation is actively studied these days, and various tactile displays using different actuators have been introduced by many researchers so far. It is, however, still hard to assume that information presentation through tactile medium would be suitably applied to products for general public. The authors have been developing micro-vibration actuators using shape-memory alloy (SMA) wires to display various tactile sensations, and in this paper an innovative tactile presentation technique for presenting tactile stroking sensations from a touch screen will be introduced. The cutaneous rabbit illusion is introduced firstly, together with its presentation by employing the SMA wire actuators. Then, the construction of a touch screen to present tactile sensation as a feedback against touch and flicking inputs of a user is described.