A Vibrotactile Belt for Measuring Vibrotactile Acuities on the Human Torso Using Coin Motors

Accurate measurement of the vibrotactile acuities of the human torso is the key to designing effective torso-worn vibrotactile displays for healthcare applications such as navigation aids for visually impaired persons. Although efforts have been made to measure vibrotactile acuities, there remains a lack of systematic studies addressing the spatial, temporal, and intensity-related aspects of vibrotactile sensitivity on the human torso. In this work, a torso-worn vibrotactile belt consisting of two crossed coin motor arrays was designed and a psychophysical study was carried out to measure the spatial, temporal, and intensity-related vibrotactile acuities of a set of human subjects wearing the designed belt. The objective parameters of vibrational intensity and the timing latency of the coin motor were also determined before measuring the vibrotactile acuities. The experimental results indicated that the tested coin motor was able to generate a median number of five and six available just-noticeable differences in intensity and duration, respectively. Among the four parameters of vibrational intensity, the perceived intensity was the most relevant to vibrational displacement. The spatial acuities measured as the degree of two-point spatial thresholds (TPTs) showed less individual difference than the distance TPTs. The results from the current work provide valuable guidance for the design of a comfortable torso-worn vibrotactile display using coin motors.