Band-Limited Vibrotactile Noise Enhances Fingertip Haptic Sensation

Abstract

This paper presents a method to enhance the haptic sensation of the fingertip by applying a vibrotactile noise to the wrist, an application of stochastic resonance. This sensation is known to improve when a sufficiently large noise is propagated to the fingertip. However, it is reduced when a large noise that humans can perceive is applied to the wrist. Therefore, this paper uses band-limited noise consisting of frequencies necessary to activate specific mechanoreceptors required for specific tasks. This allows us to apply a sufficiently large but still imperceptible noise to the wrist. On the basis of this procedure, we propose a method of improving the haptic sensation of the fingertip. Further, we conduct experiments to confirm the validity of the proposed method.