Perceived forward velocity increases with tactile flow on seat pan

We conducted a user study to clarify whether a tactile flow created by a matrix of vibrators in a seat pan simultaneously presented with an optical flow in peripheral vision enhances the perceived forward velocity of self-motion. A brief tactile motion stimulus consisted of four successive rows of vibration, and the inter-stimulus onset between the tactile rows was varied to change the velocity of the tactile motion. The experimental results show that the velocity of self-motion is significantly overestimated for rapid tactile flows and underestimated for slow tactile flows, compared with only optical flow or non-motion vibrotactile stimulation conditions.