Pseudorandom Proxy Testing of Internal Haptic Perception in Touch Styluses Intended for the Visually Impaired

Abstract

This paper examined an alternate method of using single point force feedback haptic styluses intended for the visually impaired (VI) to counter the issue of locating and identifying suspended haptic objects in an otherwise empty virtual space. The Internal Haptic Perspective (IHP) was compared to the standard external perspective (EHP) through a pseudorandom test method, and trialed on healthy and blindfolded individuals as proxies for the VI. Results showed that its application on Capital Letters led to an increase in accuracy by +15% as well as faster identification based upon t-testing and F-testing on lognormally distributed time scales by 41 seconds, while Household Objects also yielded improvements for accuracy at +20%. Overall, the IHP outperformed EHP when looking at the data as a whole (+9% and less 23 seconds); however, further testing on actual VI participants and a wider range of objects is needed to support this projection.