On-shoe tactile display

We have developed a shoe-integrated vibrotactile display to study how people understand information through their feet. A 16-point array of actuators stimulates the sole of the foot by inducing different vibration frequencies. Experiments to evaluate the role of tactile perception by the human foot and the tactile sensitivity of the plantar surface were conducted with 20 voluntary subjects. Results show that some shapes and patterns are discriminable and that tactile-foot stimulation could be used for a wide number of applications in human-machine interaction.