Multi-channel FM transmission of vibrotactile signals on 2-D communication textile

Abstract

This paper proposes a frequency-division multiplexed vibrotactile signal transfer system on conductive textiles for implementing wearable tactile suits. For multiplexing, many carrier frequencies are in one-to-one correspondence with many receivers. Each carrier signal is frequency-modulated with analog vibrotactile waveforms, and each receiver demodulates it and drives its built-in actuator. The analog waveform transmission achieves multi-channel real-time vibrotactile actuation, which is suitable for applications such as virtual reality (VR) games. A commercially available frequency modulation (FM) radio receiver chip achieves high sensitivity and superior channel selectivity. Carrier frequencies can be located in a 32MHz bandwidth, from 76MHz to 108MHz, every 200kHz, and 160 channels of vibrotactile waveforms can be transmitted simultaneously.