Tactile rendering of textures by an Electro-Active Polymer piezoelectric device: mimicking Friction-Induced Vibrations
Résumé
In order to mimic Friction-Induced Vibrations (FIV) and render the perception of textures, atactile device, named PIEZOTACT, has been developed by a thin, lightweight and flexibleElectro-Active Polymer (EAP) piezoelectric actuator. The presented signal processingstrategy, exploiting the Transfer Function of the electro-mechanical device, allowed formimicking and accurately reproducing the FIV stimuli, measured when touching realtextures. The correct FIV reproduction, by the developed device, has been verified bycomparing the spectra of the measured signals when touching real surfaces and the onesreproduced on the fingertip by the PIEZOTACT device. A pilot discrimination campaign,performed on a single subject, highlighted the capabilities of the device, being the subjectable to discriminate the simulated textures with a low number of mistakes. Moreover, theerrors in discrimination were consistent with the ones occurred when discriminating thecorresponding real surfaces. The spectra of the induced vibrations (tactile stimuli) allowedas well for explaining the difficulties to discriminate certain textures.
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