Empirical Study for Velvet Tactile Illusion Emerged by Passive Touch

Abstract

Tactile sense is the third most important sense after visual sense and hearing sense. Recently, cognitive psychology studies on tactile illusions have gained attention because of the potential applications of such sensations in tactile displays and interfaces. In this study, we focused on a unique and interesting sensation called “velvet tactile illusion,” and we examined the possibility of creating this illusion by passive touch. We investigated the relationship between some factors related to the creation of this illusion and the percentage of creating the illusion by passive touch. We then developed a device to evaluate the creation of this illusion by passive touch. This device can control factors such as line movement velocity, line diameter, and line distance that influence the creation of the velvet tactile illusion. Using this device, we conducted exhaustive tests for different values of these factors. In addition, we conducted an experiment to examine the influence of some factors on the creation of velvet tactile illusion by passive touch. The relationship between some factors related to the creation of this illusion and condition of creating the illusion was found. These data will be helpful data when we develop the new tactile display regarding velvet tactile illusion.