VibroMap: Understanding the Spacing of Vibrotactile Actuators across the Body

Hesham Elsayed, Martin Weigel, Florian Müller, Martin Schmitz, Karola Marky, Sebastian Günther, Jan Riemann, Max Mühlhäuser

IMWUT 2020

Proceedings of the ACM on Interactive, Mobile, Wearable and Ubiquitous Technologies

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TL;DR

What we did: We conducted two systematic experiments to investigate the spacing of vibrotactile actuators across different body parts to determine minimum and maximum effective distances for vibrotactile displays.

What we found: We found that vibrotactile perception varies significantly across body locations, with the wrists demonstrating higher sensitivity and lower localization errors compared to other areas, indicating that actuator spacing should take into account body part sensitivity.

Takeaway: Our work contributes to the design of body-worn vibrotactile interfaces by introducing VibroMap, a spatial map that provides guidelines for the optimal spacing of actuators, enhancing the effectiveness of haptic feedback applications.

Abstract

In spite of the great potential of on-body vibrotactile displays for a variety of applications, research lacks an understanding of the spacing between vibrotactile actuators. Through two experiments, we systematically investigate vibrotactile perception on the wrist, forearm, upper arm, back, torso, thigh, and leg, each in transverse and longitudinal body orientation. In the first experiment, we address the maximum distance between vibration motors that still preserves the ability to generate phantom sensations. In the second experiment, we investigate the perceptual accuracy of localizing vibrations in order to establish the minimum distance between vibration motors. Based on the results, we derive VibroMap, a spatial map of the functional range of inter-motor distances across the body. VibroMap supports hardware and interaction designers with design guidelines for constructing body-worn vibrotactile displays.

Abstract

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