A Conceptual Design of an Integrated Tactile Display Device

Tactile sensation is essential for many manipulation and exploration tasks not only in a real environment but also in a virtual environment. In this paper, we discuss a conceptual design of an integrated tactile display system. The system comprises two parts: a 2 DOF force feedback device for kinesthetic display and a tactile feedback device for displaying the normal stimulation to skin and the skin slip/stretch. Psychophysical experiments measure the effects of fingerpad selection, the direction of finger movements and the texture width on tactile sensitivity. We also investigate characteristics of lateral finger movement while subjects perceive different textures. From the experimental results, the principal parameters for designing a tactile display are suggested. A tactile display device is implemented using eight piezoelectric bimorphs and a linear actuator, and is attached to a 2 DOF translational force feedback device to simultaneously simulate texture and stiffness of the object.