Article ID: 15.20180615
This paper presents a vibrotactile belt to display precise directional information for visually impaired. Considering the characteristics of tactile perception, the torso-related transfer function was used to arrange actuators on the belt, and a coding algorithm using vibrotactile funneling illusion was proposed to display precise directional information. A psychophysical experiment was performed to evaluate the validity of the belt in displaying precise directional information. The experimental results indicated that the vibrotactile belt using our proposed coding algorithm achieves a resolution of 7.5 degrees with a high recognition accuracy of up to 91%. The current work provides valuable guidance for the design of vibrotactile navigation aids.
