Improving the tactile perception of image textures based on adjustable amplitude, frequency, and waveform

In this paper, we present a tactile rendering algorithm applied to an electrostatic tactile display that adjusts three parameters of the driving signal (amplitude, frequency, and waveform) to modulate the tangential friction force between a user’s finger and a touch screen. The aim of this work is to find an effective electrostatic tactile rendering algorithm to improve the tactile perception of image textures. The key idea is to jointly adjust the three parameters of the driving signal to increase the perceptual difference interval between image textures. We first explore the tactile representation characteristics of amplitude, frequency and waveform through subjective perception experiments. Based on these characteristics, we establish tactile mapping models between the three parameters of the driving signal and image textures. Finally, we use subjective evaluation experiments to verify the effectiveness of the proposed rendering method. The results show that the proposed rendering method can achieve a better tactile experience compared with rendering methods that realize tactile representation by only varying amplitude.