Development of Vibrotactile Pedestal With Multiple Actuators and Application of Haptic Illusions for Information Delivery

In this study, a vibrotactile pedestal with multiple actuators is developed and applied to smartphones to create a sense of information according to location and direction. As the main goal is to create a detailed sensation with a limited number of actuators, well-known sensory illusion effects are utilized to modulate vibrotactile stimuli to create an appropriate sensation. The monolithic design concept is utilized to the touch surface of the pedestal for a smooth grip so that there is no interference with screen interaction of the smartphone. Two experiments were conducted to validate whether the developed device could successfully reproduce directional and locational information according to given visual data. The results show that vibrotactile stimulation from the pedestal was useful in intuitively displaying information such as position and direction for smartphone applications. The implications of the work presented in this paper can serve as a stepping stone toward the development of smartphone applications with affluent sensory information through vibrotactile stimulation.