Vibrotactile Targeting in Multimodal Systems: Accuracy and Interaction

Tactile displays to enhance virtual and real environments are becoming increasingly common. Extending previous studies, we explored spatial localization of individual sites on a dense tactile array worn on the observer’s trunk, and their interaction with simultaneously-presented visual stimuli in an isomorphic display. Stimuli were composed of individual vibratory sites on the tactile array or projected flashes of light. In all cases, the task for the observer was to identify the location of the target stimulus, whose modality was defined for that session. In the multimodal experiment, observers were also required to identify the quality of a stimulus presented in the other modality (the "distractor"). Overall, performance was affected by the location of the target within the array. Having to identify the quality of a simultaneous stimulus in the other modality reduced both target accuracy and response time, but these effects did not seem to be a function of the relative location of the distractor.