Formulation of tactile Gestalt to express variation in velvet hand illusion caused by out-of-phase cycles of two wires

Abstract

To develop a tactile display, we focused on the Velvet Hand Illusion (VHI), which is a tactile illusion phenomenon. The most important feature of VHI is that VHI is not generated in one wire but is generated in two or more wires. This means that we recognize the area surrounded by wires as a Gestalt and a smooth surface sensation is generated in the Gestalt. We assume that the VHI mechanism is related to the law of closure and the law of common fate in Gestalt theory. In this paper, we investigate the relationship between VHI and the law of closure by means of variation in a phase difference of two wires’ cyclic movement, and formulate VHI variation, taking into account the law of closure. We try to divide the law of closure into two factors: one of them is a factor of translation and the other is a factor of elasticity. We formulate the tactile Gestalt and verify the validity of this formulation by comparing the result of the psychophysical experiment to the estimation via the formulation. This work shows that the law of closure in the tactile Gestalt consists of the translation factor and the elasticity factor, and the VHI mechanism is described by the formulation of the tactile Gestalt.