A NOVEL MICRO-VIBRATION ACTUATOR AND THE PRESENTATION OF TACTILE SENSATIONS

Keishi Fukuyama, Yohsuke Mizukami, Hideyuki Sawada

Abstract

A novel micro-vibration actuator using a shape-memory alloy for the presentation of various tactile sensations to a human skin is introduced in this paper. The authors paid attention to the characteristics of a shape-memory alloy formed into a thread, which changes its length according to its temperature, and developed a vibration-generating actuator electrically driven by periodic signals generated by current control circuits. For the tactile information transmission to a human body, the human higher-level perception such as the phantom sensation and the apparent movement of the tactility is employed in consideration of presenting novel tactile sensations. By coupling the actuators as a pair, an information transmission is realized for presenting novel tactile sensations to a user. The information transmission was tested by changing various conditions of electric signals to drive actuators, and was evaluated by questionnaires. Several users reported that they perceived a novel rubbing sensation given by the apparent movement, and we further experimented the presentation of the sensation in detail to be used as a tactile display for the information transmission through our body.

Keywords

tactile sensation, shape-memory alloy, phantom sensation

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IMEKO-TC1-TC7-2008-017.pdf

DOI

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IMEKO TC

TC1 - Education and Training in Measurement and Instrumentation

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