Providing directional information with tactile torso displays

Tactile torso displays convey information by presenting localised vibrations to the torso. Since these stimuli are directly mapped to body coordinates, tactile displays are able to present 3D spatial information in an intuitive way. This paper (1) provides a short description of the tactile torso display that we developed, and (2) gives a brief overview of a simulator study on the usefulness of tactile torso displays in maintaining a stable hover with a helicopter. The results prove the potential of intuitive tactile torso displays in reducing drift during hover, and - more generally - prove that tactile displays can be applied in fast man-in-the-loop tasks. The demonstration during Eurohaptics 2003 will consist of our tactile torso display connected to a helicopter flight simulator