Why Is Tactile Information not Accurately Perceived? - Accuracy and Transfer Characteristics of Visualized Schematic Images Induced by Perceived Tactile Stimuli

In this study, we focused on the visualization of tactile information, where people mapped the set of perceived tactile stimuli to the visible images. This empirical study was intended to determine these characteristics of visualization. Participants were asked to draw a set of two straight lines, given as tactile information perceived on their palm. Geographical differences between the original and perceived lines categorized into displacement, rotation angles, and scaling rates were analyzed by applying affine transformation. The participants drew significantly more deviating lines for subsequent lines. Participants also tended to draw the lines shifting downwards. The tendency to deviate the lines downwards was presumably explained by the psychological effects related to cautious behavior towards actions away from their bodies, i.e., participants were, in an involuntary manner, restrained to draw the lines at the upper part of the tablet, which was physically away from the body trunk, yielding a trend that many lines tended to be drawn nearer to the body.