The Role of Reference Sample in Haptic Evaluation

Abstract

Available investigations in haptic evaluation can be divided into two groups according to whether they have used a reference sample or not. Accordingly, this study has focused on the clarification of the effects of using a reference sample on evaluation. Thirty human volunteers participated, and 20 types of test samples (objects) were used for the evaluations. All samples were spherical in shape but were of different sizes and different material properties. The eighteen onomatopoetic expressions were utilized in the answering form to evaluate haptic sense in all evaluations, and the human volunteers answered a seven level scale questionnaire with the 18 onomatopoetic items. The fitting goodness test results of comparison between the two types of experiments with/without reference sample showed that all values were statistically significant. Therefore, this study suggests that for haptic evaluation a reference sample is not required.