Vibrotactile pattern recognition on the arm and torso

A tactile display for use in navigation has been designed and evaluated. In these experiments, the ability of subjects to identify patterns of vibrotactile stimulation was tested using tactile displays mounted on the arm and torso. The performance of two types of motors (pancake and cylindrical) was also compared at both sites. The results indicated that identification of the vibrotactile patterns was superior on the torso as compared to the forearm, with subjects achieving 99-100% accuracy with seven of the eight patterns presented.