Abstract

In the past, tactile displays were of one of two kinds: they were either shape displays, or relied on distributed vibrotactile stimulation. A tactile display device is described in this paper which is distinguished by the fact that it relies exclusively on lateral skin stretch stimulation. It is constructed from an array of 64 closely packed piezoelectric actuators connected to a membrane. The deformations of this membrane cause an array of 112 skin contactors to create programmable lateral stress fields in the skin of the finger pad. Some preliminary observations are reported with respect to the sensations that this kind of display can produce. INTRODUCTION Tactile displays are devices used to provide subjects with the sensation of touching objects directly with the skin. Previously reported tactile displays portray distributed tactile stimulation as a one of two possibilities [1]. One class of displays, termed "shape displays", typically consists of devices having a dense array of s...

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