Exploring the dorsal surface of the fingers for visuo-haptic sensory substitution

In this paper, a novel haptic interface is presented for exploring the dorsal surface of the finger phalanges as visuo-haptic sensory substitution modality. The constructional details of the proposed haptic glove are detailed along with two experiments that explore vibrotactile localization and spatio-temporal cue identification among users who are blind and sighted, but blind-folded. The use of the dorsal surface of the fingers ensures that there is no functional inconvenience to the fingers or the hand. The results of the experiments are promising and offer an effective means for delivering high intensity (bandwidth) visual data in auxiliary sensory channels when vision is deprived or overloaded.