Electrotactile haptic display on the fingertips: preliminary results

Electrical stimulation of the sense of touch may be used to display pictorial information to blind computer users via a fingertip-scanned (haptic) touch tablet containing embedded electrodes. This might be particularly useful to users of systems with graphical user interfaces, or with drawing and layout software. Electrotactile (electrocutaneous) stimulation on the fingertip, however, differs substantially from that on other body locations. We discuss the implications of designing a practical graphics haptic display by addressing the high-resistance and variable nature of the fingertip electrode-skin interface.<<ETX>>