The study of length estimation evoked by dynamic vibrotactile stimuli

Tactual length perception is not only affected by the distance between two physical stimulation points, but also related with the patterns of the tactile stimuli. The vibration parameters which we study include spatial distribution (regular or irregular), vibratory rhythm (simultaneously or sequentially), number of stimulators, burst duration and vibration intensity. This paper mainly presents three experiments aimed to study the perceived length evoked by vibrotactile stimuli. In the pair-wise comparison experiments, standard (fixed) and comparison lines were respectively presented on the back of subjects. The standard line is the linearly arranged tactors with constant vibration parameters, while the vibration parameters of the comparison ones are variable. The results showed that the vibration parameters contributed differently to the length estimation performance. Vibration intensity, spatial distribution, rhythm have little effect on tactile length perception. While the number of stimulators and vibratory duration both having significant effect on the length estimation performance. There is a tendency to overestimate the vibration lines which contains more tactors or has longer stimulus duration.

[1]  P. Cochat,et al.  Et al , 2008, Archives de pediatrie : organe officiel de la Societe francaise de pediatrie.

[2]  Abdulmotaleb El-Saddik,et al.  Continuous tactile perception for vibrotactile displays , 2009, 2009 IEEE International Workshop on Robotic and Sensors Environments.

[3]  Astrid M L Kappers,et al.  Curvature affects haptic length perception. , 2008, Acta psychologica.

[4]  Daniel Goldreich,et al.  A Bayesian Perceptual Model Replicates the Cutaneous Rabbit and Other Tactile Spatiotemporal Illusions , 2007, PloS one.

[5]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Tactons : structured vibrotactile messages for non-visual information display , 2007 .

[6]  C. Spence,et al.  Numerosity Judgments for Tactile Stimuli Distributed over the Body Surface , 2006, Perception.

[7]  A. Streri,et al.  Role of force cues in the haptic estimations of a virtual length , 2006, Experimental Brain Research.

[8]  K. Heilman,et al.  Length perception and production of normal subjects in proximal versus distal peripersonal space , 2004, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[9]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Tactons: Structured Tactile Messages for Non-Visual Information Display , 2004, AUIC.

[10]  A. A. Collins,et al.  Vibrotactile localization on the arm: Effects of place, space, and age , 2003, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  A. Streri,et al.  Touching for knowing : cognitive psychology of haptic manual perception , 2003 .

[12]  S. Lederman,et al.  TACTUAL PERCEPTION , 2003 .

[13]  J.B.F. van Erp,et al.  Guidelines for the use of vibro-tactile displays in human computer interaction , 2002 .

[14]  Judy Czylok.  A SENSE OF TOUCH , 1979, Nursing standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987).

[15]  Daniel P. Huttenlocher,et al.  Efficient matching of pictorial structures , 2000, Proceedings IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2000 (Cat. No.PR00662).

[16]  B. O'Shaughnessy.  The sense of touch , 1989 .

[17]  L. Pringle,et al.  Haptic numerosity perception: effect of item arrangement. , 1988, The American journal of psychology.

[18]  Barry Hughes,et al.  The detection of length and orientation changes in dynamic vibrotactile patterns , 1986, Perception & psychophysics.

[19]  E C Lechelt,et al.  Pulse Number Discrimination in Tactile Spatio-Temporal Patterns , 1974, Perceptual and motor skills.

[20]  M. Teghtsoonian,et al.  Two varieties of perceived length , 1970 .

[21]  M. Mashhour,et al.  On the new “psychophysical law”: A validation study , 1968 .

[22]  J H Mather,et al.  Cross-modal judgments of length. , 1966, The American journal of psychology.

[23]  Robert Teghtsoonian,et al.  Seen and felt length , 1965 .

[24]  S. S. Stevens,et al.  Subjective scaling of length and area and the matching of length to loudness and brightness. , 1963, Journal of experimental psychology.

[25]  J. Gibson.  Observations on active touch. , 1962, Psychological review.

[26]  F A GELDARD,et al.  Some neglected possibilities of communication. , 1960, Science.

[27]  G. Békésy,et al.  Funneling in the Nervous System and its Role in Loudness and Sensation Intensity on the Skin , 1958 .