A tactile feeling display based on selective stimulation to skin receptors

Abstract

People can feel various tactile feelings by touching and rubbing objects. In this paper, we propose a method to display such tactile feeling of fine texture with reality. We create the feeling by selective stimulation to each kind of mechanoreceptor using the elastic transfer property of the skin. Our system is composed of four small magnet tips attached on the hand in a line, which are controlled with precise force. The two driving modes, the common phase mode and the reversed phase mode, stimulate the deep receptors and shallow receptors in the skin, respectively. The system could give several types of tactile feeling with reality. The principle and experimental results are shown.