Towards Effective Information Display Using Vibrotactile Apparent Motion

In this paper, we explore the use of tactile apparent motion at different speeds for information display. A prototype vibrotactile tactor array was constructed, consisting of three rings of five voice-coil tactors each, and mounted on the upper arm of test subjects. The results of two experiments are presented: a study on the sensitivity to differences in apparent motion speed, and a study on users’ ability to differentiate four motion patterns at three different speeds. Users had little trouble with pattern identification, but found absolute speed recognition difficult. Several ideas for future exploration of tactile apparent motion for general-purpose information displays are presented.