Effect of Temperature on the Absolute and Discrimination Thresholds of Voltage on Electrovibration Tactile Display

Multi-dimensions tactile displays, such as thermal and texture display, are desirable for enhancing perception while users experience virtual shopping such as touching a garment in virtual reality. Understanding the effect of one dimension on the other is fundamental for design of multi-dimensions tactile display. In this article, we report the effect of temperature on thresholds of voltage applied on an electrovibration tactile display. Three temperatures of the electrovibration tactile display at 18°C (cold), 30°C (neutral) and 38°C (warm) were considered in two experiments. In Experiment I, we measured the absolute thresholds of square wave voltage with 25 Hz, 140 Hz and 485 Hz. In Experiment II, we measured the amplitude discrimination thresholds of same voltage signals as in Experiment I. The results show that the absolute thresholds differed significantly between 18°C and 38°C for all the three frequencies. No significant difference in the absolute threshold was found between 18°C and 30°C, except for the 485 Hz voltage. The amplitude discrimination thresholds were essentially constant except for that of the 485 Hz voltage at 18°C, which were 17.11 Vpp and 16.86 Vpp larger than those at 30°C and 38°C, respectively.