A linearvibrotactile actuator for mobile devices

Although, the current vibrotactile actuators are widely used for haptic interaction with mobile devices, they have still problems to be solved before accepting in many mobile devices. The most critical problem is that the conventional vibrotactile actuators creates vibrotactile signal with limited frequency bandwidth. The vibrotactile actuator with large frequency bandwidth allows a user to delicately and immersively manipulate mobile devices. This paper presents a new vibrotactile actuator which creates vibrotactile signals with a large frequency bandwidth. In our actuators, vibrotactile signal is generated by interaction between solenoids and a permanent magnet. Experiments are conducted to investigate whether the proposed actuator generates enough output force to stimulate human skin across a large frequency bandwidth. The result of the experiments demonstrates that the proposed actuator is suitable for the haptic interaction with mobile devices.