Invisible Touch: How Identifiable are Mid-Air Haptic Shapes?

Abstract

Mid-air haptic feedback constitutes a new means of system feedback in which tactile sensations are created without contact with an actuator. Though earlier research has already focused on its abilities to enhance our experiences, e.g. by increasing a sense of immersion during art exhibitions, an elaborate study investigating people's abilities to identify different mid-air haptic shapes has not yet been conducted. In this paper, we describe a user study involving 50 participants, with ages between 19 - 77 years old, who completed a mid-air haptic learning experiment involving eight different mid-air haptic shapes. Preliminary results showed no learning effect throughout the task. Age was found to be strongly related to a decline in performance, and interestingly, significant differences in accuracy rates were found for different types of mid-air haptic shapes.