Towards a tactile communication system with dialog-based tuning

We present a tactile intelligent sensory substitution system (TIS³) as a novel tactile communication system with dialog-based tuning. TIS³ consists of a tactile encoder (TE) which maps desired objects or patterns (P) onto spatio-temporal stimulation patterns (P´) as a parallel stream of stimulation time courses, by means of a tactile stimulator array (TS) at selected skin location to elicit tactile perceptions (P*). The human subject evaluates and compares a percept P* with a given object P as association goal. A Learning Module (LM) for dialog based TE-tuning transforms these evaluations into TE-change signals. In a first step, the application of a dialog-based TE-tuning was successfully tested using a TS version with fifteen stimulators on the lower arm for regaining the corresponding stimulation pattern P´ for a given tactile reference percept P*_ref. Optimization of P* was achieved in less than 100 iteration steps by means of a micro evolutionary learning algorithm (MEA).