Vibrotactile Information for Intuitive Speed Regulation

The present aim was to investigate if controlled vibrotactile stimulation can be used to inform users on how to regulate their behavior. 36 stimuli were varied by frequency modulation (i.e., ascending, constant, and descending), duration (i.e., 500, 1750, and 3000 ms), waveform (i.e., sine and sawtooth), and body location (i.e., wrist and chest), and presented to 12 participants. The participants were to evaluate without any training the meaning of each presented stimuli using three response options: ‘accelerate your speed’, ‘keep your speed constant’, and ‘decelerate your speed’. Participants rated also how emotionally pleasant and arousing the different stimulations were. The results showed that the stimuli were predominantly perceived analogously with the vibration frequency modulation. The best stimuli represented ‘accelerate your speed’, ‘keep your speed constant’, and ‘decelerate your speed’ information in accuracies of 88, 100, and 79 %, respectively. Stimulations were experienced as more pleasant in the wrist compared to the chest location. Both ascending and descending stimulations were rated as more arousing than stimuli with constant frequency. Our results suggest that tactile stimulation could be used in real life mobile applications, for example, in sports to inform the users on how they should regulate their performance.