Comparison of Force and Vibrotactile Feedback with Direct Stimulation for Texture Recognition

In this paper a study is conducted in order to evaluate three different strategies of haptic feedback for texture discrimination in virtual environments. Specifically, both force and vibrotactile feedback have been evaluated, as well as the direct use of the sense of touch, to detect different textures. To this end, a force feedback Phantom device, a custom built vibrotactile data glove and paper palpable prototypes, which represent an ideal model of tactile feedback, have been compared. These three methods have been used to detect two types of patterns, one formed by different geometrical shapes, and the other with different grooves width. Results show that the vibrotactile data glove has a notable behaviour in the detection of textures where the frequency of tactile stimuli varies, and it is even useful to detect more complex textures.