Spatiotemporal motion features resulting from tactile interface layouts influence tactile speed perception

Summary: Representing tangential motion between objects and the skin using tactile displays enables humans to manipulate virtual objects and recognize their surface properties. To design effective tactile stimuli that accurately represent motion, it is important to understand how humans perceive tactile motion based on spatiotemporal features, an area that remains relatively unexplored. This study elucidates the spatiotemporal features that influence the perceived speed of tactile motion represented by a tactile display with discrete stimulation points. The findings show that the average spatial spacing between stimulation points affects the perceived speed, even though the average spatial spacing does not vary with the speed itself, but rather varies with the stimulation point layout of the tactile display. No significant effects from other features were observed on the perceived speed. The results suggest that perceived speed can be controlled by considering the average spatial spacing during tactile stimulus design.