Creating Haptic Illusion of Compliance for Tangential Force Input using Vibrotactile Actuator

Abstract

We demonstrate a haptic feedback method that generates a compliance illusion on a rigid surface with a tangential force sensor and a vibrotactile actuator. The method assumes a conceptual model where a virtual object is placed on a textured surface and stringed to four walls with four springs. A two dimensional tangential force vector measured from the rigid surface is mapped to the virtual position of the virtual object on the textured surface. By playing vibration patterns that simulate the friction-induced vibrations made from the movement of the virtual object, we could make an illusion that the rigid surface feels like moving. We also demonstrate that the perceptual properties of the illusion, such as the stiffness of the virtual spring and the maximum travel distance of the virtual object, can be programmatically controlled.