Perception Accuracy of Vibrotactile Feedback during Locomotion

The use of vibrotactile feedback as a tool in sports has not yet been well supported by scientific evidence. In the U.S. 40-50% of the population who run regularly is injured annually. Among those injuries, half occur at the knee joint. The use of vibrotactile feedback in several medical and non-medical areas has well been established. However, there lies a huge potential for sports science to study vibrotactile feedback mechanism as an intervention tool. We have developed a portable haptic system to investigate human's accuracy of haptic perception during locomotion. The haptic system is lightweight and capable of efficiently delivering real-time vibrotactile sensation to multiple body parts. A preliminary study was performed using this system on twenty six subjects to assess perception accuracy. From the experiment, we have demonstrated that humans can successfully perceive multiple vibrotactile vibrations given in a staggered mode as compared to continuous mode during both walking and running.