Two point vibrotactile spatial resolution as a function of pulse frequency and pulse width

The paper presents an experimental study of the effect of the pulse frequency and pulse width on two point vibrotactile spatial discrimination. Two point discrimination is used to determine the ability of the subject to discriminate distances using different pulse frequencies and pulse widths. An array of piezoceramic vibrators is used to measure the two-point discrimination on the index finger. Results measured on nine subjects show that discrimination distances decrease for smaller frequencies. For pulse frequencies of 50 Hz the average two-point discrimination distance is 3.2 mm (STD=0.8) while for 700 Hz the average discrimination distance is 4.4 mm (STD=1.1). Differences in discrimination distances are statistically significant for two-sample t test with p<0.05