Controlling Human Perception of Haptic Profiles Using Contextual Cues

Haptics are commonly used to convey alerts or simple notifications in commercial applications. Expanding the use of haptics to more complex scenarios is a promising area of development. The results from testing indicate that participants associate meaning with haptic profiles based on the context in which they are presented. Such results lay the groundwork for controlling perception of haptics using contextual cues. The haptic profiles in this study are customized patterns generated by linear resonant actuators (LRAs). They are intended to convey complex meanings to the test participants. The extent to which contextual cues determine participants’ perception of the haptic profiles was investigated for various types of haptic profiles and contextual cues, including variations of specificity levels and cue modalities (picture, sound, video, etc.) The results indicate that contextual cues can significantly impact perception of haptics such that the cues effectively “control“ the human perception.