Development of a multi-electrode electrovibration tactile display with 1 mm resolution

摘要

In this study, we demonstrate the characteristics of an electrovibration tactile display with a 1 mm resolution. Electrovibration is one of the promising stimulus methods for mobile tactile devices because of its simplicity in terms of structure of the tactile display and principle. While several groups have developed electrovibration tactile displays, the resolution of the displays have not been discussed. Resolution is an important feature to emulate the surface textures of real objects that deform the skin with a 1 mm resolution. To achieve electrovibration stimulus with high resolution, we fabricated an electrovibration tactile display consisting of an array of electrodes with a width of 1 mm. We also evaluated the characteristics of the fabricated tactile display. We asked the test subjects if they could perceive the electrovibration stimulus. From the results, we determined that while the amplitude and the frequency of the applied sinusoidal voltage affected the size of the perceived stimulus, the area of the electrovibration did not affect this perception. We also found that the insulator of the tactile display was broken down. The proposed tactile display was able to present a spatial electrovibration stimulus and required optimization of the applied voltage.