Towards Vibrotactile Direction and Distance Information for Virtual Reality and Workstations for Blind People

In the current paper psychophysical aspects of a vibrotactile feedback device were investigated and its potential of signal modulation was analyzed. We identified magnitude calibration factors for equal perceptions of the different stimulation locations of the device and determined the spatial acuity with which the user is able to correctly detect the stimulation’s location. Furthermore we investigated different approaches of vibrotactile stimulation for communicating direction and distance information to the human arm (motion guidance) and also explored different approaches of signal modulation for the transmission of additional information content. The knowledge of these vibrotactile perception aspects is a fundamental requirement in order to design and evaluate different parameters for the design and application-oriented optimization of vibrotactile stimulation patterns