How to Effectively Display Surface Properties Using an Integrated Tactile Display System

In this paper, we suggest a mouse-type integrated tactile display system that provides kinesthetic force, distributed pressure, vibration and skin stretch. The system consists of two parts: a 2-DOF force feedback mechanism for kinesthetic force display and a tactile display part for providing normal stimulation to the skin and the lateral skin stretch. A tactile display device, using eight piezoelectric bimorphs and a linear actuator, is fabricated and attached to a 2-DOF translational force feedback device to simultaneously simulate the texture and stiffness of the object. The developed system was adopted as a test bed to study the factors affecting perception of surface properties. We investigate three things: effective stimulating methods, limitation of surface discrimination based on kinesthetic force and the effectiveness of combining kinesthetic force feedback with tactile feedback. Seven kinds of stimulating methods are investigated to study effective methods in simulating texture. In addition, in order to find out the role of skin stretch during perceiving texture, the discernment abilities of active touch (rubbing), laterally-active-display and moving-wave-form have been compared.