Philippe Coni

Haptics on a Touch Screen: Characterization of Perceptual Thresholds

By sending a vibration signal on a touch panel equipped with piezoelectric actuators, this study has a double purpose: analyzing the influence of technical characteristics of vibration signals on perception thresholds and analyzing the influence of sex on those thresholds. During the experiment, 46 participants were asked to leave their finger pressed on a touch panel and to inform the experimenter when perceiving a vibration. This work allowed identifying the minimum perceptual thresholds of haptic signals for 95% of a representative population, on a given vibration range. This study also particularly revealed perception differences depending on waveform. Finally, it provides significant results regarding the effect of sex on perceptual sensations: Female participants tend to get lower perceptual thresholds.