Development of a novel haptic perception device using “Touch Blend”

A simple haptic perception device using "Touch Blend". Our former device had some problems of device specifications and the method of haptic perceptions. In this study, a new device was made, and it could compound "haptic perceptions" from five elements (pressure, vibration, warmth, cold, pain). An evaluation experiment was carried out on 30 volunteers of early 20s. They put their fingertip on the device, and they answered into a sheet of items. The results suggested that the device could present hardness, titillate and warmth. The device failed to present elasticity, which was speculated to be presented by combining pressure and warmth, and throb as also the result of combining vibration and pain, and the device was not able to present cold and prick, though these problems can be solved by improving the device. And the results reached by the experiment were successful enough to say that our new haptic perception device based on “Touch Blend” is capable of presenting haptic sensations. Consequently, our idea of providing haptic perceptions based on “Touch Blend” theory was proved to be feasible.