Design of a wearable device for low frequency haptic stimulation

Haptic devices has been an expanding field in recent years. Most existing wearable haptic devices focus on delivering vibrations, and can generally be used only on one body part, most often the hands. The wearable haptic device presented in this paper presents two innovations compared to the state of the art: it can elicit stimuli such as stroking, brushing or tickling the skin with an exchangeable tool, and it can be attached on several body parts, with a focus on the hairy skin. The device has been tested in a cue recognition experiment to prove its usability. In a second experiment, an embedded force sensor is used to measure the force applied by the tool on the skin and eventually detect if the tool-tip is moving on the skin or not. The results show that the device can be used for human studies and that motor stall condition can be deduced from the force profile periodicity.