A Lightweight Haptic Feedback Glove Employing Normal Indentation, Lateral Skin Stretch and both Softness and Hardness Rendering

Current haptic devices often provide tactile feedback via only vibrations and kinesthetic feedback based on heavy and cumbersome exoskeletons hindering users’ motion. This paper presents an innovative, lightweight, flexible and easy-to-wear haptic glove providing realistic tactile feedback through normal indentation and lateral skin stretch in addition to vibrations, as well as high-fidelity kinesthetic feedback through strings pulled by servo motors. Unlike current systems, it is inexpensive and tactile feedback is achieved through small vibration motors embedded on the fingertips of the glove. Normal indentation and shear forces are created through moving platforms applying pressure to the skin. Kinesthetic feedback is provided by small strings attached to the glove and pulled to simulate, unlike previous systems, both soft and hard virtual object manipulation. The glove is controlled by a small microcontroller receiving input from a computer sending commands to the motors and actuators. Study results suggest that the user is capable to perceive better directional information and surface geometry when vibration is added to the fingertip. Users perform better at distinguishing softness levels when the differences in softness are distinct.