The Vibrotactile Experience of the HOME Button on Smartphones

The vibration of the virtual HOME button is very important for smartphone users. To understand the user experience of different vibration modes of the HOME button, we designed 2 experiments to study this issue. Study 1 compared 4 different HOME buttons that were experienced either in or out of visual sight. The results showed that the perceived intensity was the key factor related to the tactile experience of the HOME button regardless of the particular vibration mode. Study 2 explored the influence of vibration intensity on users’ tactile experiences. The results showed that the frequency and amplitude of the vibration had a significant positive relationship with the overall evaluation of the tactile experience. More importantly, this effect was mediated by the perceived intensity. These results have implications for designing vibration modes that satisfy the needs of smartphone users.

[1]  A comparison of complex vibrotactile pattern perception on the OPTACON by young and old observers , 1993 .

[2]  Michael J. Griffin,et al.  Frequency dependence of perceived intensity of steering wheel vibration: effect of grip force , 2007, Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07).

[3]  Stephen A. Brewster,et al.  T-Bars: towards tactile user interfaces for mobile touchscreens , 2008, Mobile HCI.

[4]  R. T. Verrillo,et al.  Effect of stimulus frequency on subjective vibrotactile magnitude functions , 1975 .

[5]  Sharif Razzaque,et al.  Tactile virtual buttons for mobile devices , 2003, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[6]  Vincent Hayward,et al.  Amplitude and Duration Interdependence in the Perceived Intensity of Complex Tactile Signals , 2014, EuroHaptics.

[7]  A. Fraioli,et al.  Sensation magnitude of vlbrotactUe stimuli 1 , 2 , 1969 .

[8]  William G. Griswold,et al.  Peopletones: a system for the detection and notification of buddy proximity on mobile phones , 2008, MobiSys '08.

[9]  A. Fraioli,et al.  Sensation magnitude of vibrotactile stimuli , 1969 .

[10]  Stephen A. Brewster,et al.  Investigating the effectiveness of tactile feedback for mobile touchscreens , 2008, CHI.

[11]  John G. Lynch,et al.  Reconsidering Baron and Kenny: Myths and Truths about Mediation Analysis , 2010 .

[12]  Hong Z. Tan,et al.  A study of touch typing performance with keyclick feedback , 2014, 2014 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS).

[13]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Feel who's talking: using tactons for mobile phone alerts , 2006, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[14]  Sang-Youn Kim,et al.  Interactive Racing Game with Graphic and Haptic Feedback , 2007, HAID.

[15]  Lorna M. Brown,et al.  Tactile feedback for mobile interactions , 2007, CHI.

[16]  Toshiaki Sugimura,et al.  Active click: tactile feedback for touch panels , 2001, CHI Extended Abstracts.

[17]  R. T. Verrillo,et al.  Effect of stimulus duration on vibrotactile sensation magnitude , 1976 .

[18]  Shafiq ur Réhman,et al.  iFeeling: Vibrotactile Rendering of Human Emotions on Mobile Phones , 2008, WMMP.

[19]  Jaehoon Jung,et al.  Psychophysical Model for Vibrotactile Rendering in Mobile Devices , 2010, PRESENCE: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments.

[20]  Topi Kaaresoja,et al.  Feel-good touch: finding the most pleasant tactile feedback for a mobile touch screen button , 2008, ICMI '08.

[21]  Ravi Kuber,et al.  Towards developing perceivable tactile feedback for mobile devices , 2011, Int. J. Hum. Comput. Stud..

[22]  Seungmoon Choi,et al.  Vibrotactile Perceived Intensity for Mobile Devices as a Function of Direction, Amplitude, and Frequency , 2013, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.