A whole palm tactile display using suction pressure

In this paper, we propose a large-area tactile display by controlling suction pressure. This research is based on our discovery of tactile illusion that pulling a skin through a hole with air suction causes a sensation as if something like a stick is pushing the skin. This illusion implies that our mechanoreceptors are insensitive to the sign of stress (negative or positive), i.e. we detect not stress directly but strain energy. There are two key concepts to realize our tactile display. One is the tactile illusion mentioned above and the other is "multi primitive tactile stimulation." We explain our approach to produce various tactile sensations from a sharp edge to a plane surface with a simple structure of display device based on air pressure control, and report the experimental results.