Quantitative analysis of human tactile illusory characteristic under visual environment and a haptic device of two-dimensional curved surface

In general, it is difficult to present haptic information because arbitrary curvatures of the curved surface and many degrees of freedom need to be realized. On the other hand, psychophysical studies have suggested that human visual and tactile sensations have an illusory fusion characteristic. This means that we can recognize curved surfaces of objects through visual and tactile sensations, even if exact tactile information is not presented. Hence, by utilizing the human characteristic of sensory fusion, realization of a haptic device of curved surface can be simplified. From such motivation, the human fusion characteristics of visual and tactile sensation are measured, and are quantitatively analyzed. Based on the analyzed results, a haptic device of two-dimensional curved surface for three fingers is developed. In the haptic device, only four curved patterns are utilized instead of presenting many curved patterns. Performance of the developed haptic device is proved through evaluated experiments.