Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07)
Braille Display by Lateral Skin Deformation with the STReSS2 Tactile Transducer
Tsukuba, Japan
March 22-March 24
ISBN: 0-7695-2738-8
Earlier work with a 1-D tactile transducer demonstrated that lateral skin deformation is sufficient to produce sensations similar to those felt when brushing a finger against a line of Braille dots. Here, we extend this work to the display of complete 6-dot Braille characters using a general purpose 2-D tactile transducer called STReSS2. The legibility of the produced Braille was evaluated by asking seven expert Braille readers to identify meaningless 5-letter strings as well as familiar words. Results indicate that reading was difficult but possible for most individuals. The superposition of texture to the sensation of a dot improved performance. The results contain much information to guide the design of a specialized Braille display operating by lateral skin deformation. They also suggest that rendering for contrast rather than realism may facilitate Braille reading when using a weak tactile transducer.
Citation:
Vincent Levesque, Jerome Pasquero, Vincent Hayward, "Braille Display by Lateral Skin Deformation with the STReSS2 Tactile Transducer," whc, pp.115-120, Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07), 2007