Tactile-Sight: A Sensory Substitution Device Based on Distance-Related Vibrotactile Flow

[摘要] Sensory substitution is a research field of increasing interest with regard to technical, applied and theoretical issues. Among the latter, it is of central interest to understand the form in which humans perceive the environment. Ecological psychology, among other approaches, proposes that we can detect higher-order informational variables (in the sense that they are defined over substantial spatial and temporal intervals) that specify our interaction with the environment. When using a vibrotactile sensory substitution device, it is reasonable to ask if stimulation on the skin may be exploitable to detect higher-order variables. Motivated by this question, a portable vibrotactile sensory substitution device was built, using distance-based information as a source and driving a large number of vibrotactile actuators (72 in the reported version, 120 max). The portable device was designed to explore real environments, allowing natural unrestricted movement for the user while providing contingent real-time vi...

[学科分类] 自动化工程

[关键词] Vibrotactile Flow;Sensory Substitution;Time To Contact