Directed Research Project Details
Haptic Perception of Relative Magnitude in Sighted and Visually Disabled People
| Author: | Shasta Willson |
|---|---|
| Date: | December 06, 2002 |
| Time: | 13:30 |
| Location: | 220 Deschutes |
Abstract
Haptic interfaces have generated excitement within the fields of teleoperation, scientific visualization and accessibility for visually disabled users. Future applications for abstract data and information display will benefit from fundamental research into human perception of computer-generated haptics. We conducted a haptics-only experiment with the PHANToM to better understand human performance with haptic properties for judging relative magnitude. Magnitude was represented by physical length (displacement) and vibration varied by frequency and amplitude. Eleven blind and eleven sighted individuals participated. Displacement tasks were 50% slower than vibration conditions. Displacement and amplitude were 22% more accurate than frequency. Surprisingly, blind participants, while taking 50% longer, did not have better accuracy. No interaction effects were found. These results suggest that vibration varied by amplitude provides a faster and equally accurate display of magnitude compared with the traditional displacement approach. Secondly, the same coding benefits equally well visually disabled and sighted individuals.