Enhanced Collision Perception Using Tactile Feedback

We used a custom designed tactor suit to provide full body vibrotactile feedback across the human arm for the purpose of enabling users to perceive a physical sense of collisions in a virtual world. We constructed a 3-D virtual environment to test arm reach movements. We present the results of human subject trials that test the benefit of using vibrotactile feedback for this purpose. Our preliminary results presented here show a small, but distinct, advantage with the use of tactors. With additional refinements to the system, improved performance results can be obtained.