A tactile communication system for navigation

A vibrotactile display for use in navigation has been designed and evaluated. The arm and the torso, which offer relatively large and flat surface areas, were chosen as locations for the displays. The ability of subjects to identify patterns of vibrotactile stimulation on the arm and torso was tested in a series of experiments using the vibrotactile displays. A variety of patterns of stimulation was evaluated to determine which was most effective, and the efficacy of two types of motors (pancake and cylindrical) was compared. The arm display was tested with sedentary subjects in the laboratory, and the torso display was tested both in the laboratory with sedentary subjects and outdoors with active subjects. The results indicated that identification of the vibrotactile patterns was superior on the torso as compared to the forearm, with subjects achieving 99-100% accuracy with seven of the eight patterns presented. The torso display was equally effective for both sedentary and active subjects.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Mechanical Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2005

Author dc:creator

• Piateski, Erin M

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Lynette A. Jones.

• Mechanical Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/32347

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/32347