Attachable and detachable vibrotactile feedback modules and their information capacity for spatiotemporal patterns

This paper showcases attachable/detachable haptic modules, nicknamed haptic enchanters, by presenting their conceptual prototypes and quantifying their information transmission capacity. Haptic enchanters can be attached to ordinary devices and wearables to endow them with the ability of creating programmable haptic stimuli, thereby transforming them to effective haptic communication devices. In particular, our prototype enchanters are designed to localize vibrotactile stimulation to the neighborhood of attachment site, and this spatial isolation allows for effective spatiotemporal information delivery using multiple enchanters. We demonstrate that haptic enchanters enable very high capacity of information transfer (4.55–7.06 bits) for spatiotemporal vibration sequences rendered with 2, 3, and 4 enchanters. These results instantiate the performance of haptic enchanters as effective and convenient communication accessories and their potential for applications.