Applied

Tactile displays are used to convey small-scale force and shape information to the fingertip. We describe a 6 x 6 tactile shape display design that is low in cost and easily constructed. It uses commercially available RC servomotors to actuate an array of mechanical pins. The pins deflect a maximum of 2 mm, with a resolution of 0.1 mm. The pin center spacing is 2 mm and the pin diameter is 1 mm. For the maximum deflection of 2 mm, the display can represent frequencies up to 7.5 Hz; smaller deflections lead to achievable frequencies up to 25 Hz because the servos are slew rate limited. This design is well suited to tactile display research, as it offers reasonable performance in a robust and inexpensive package. 1