Abstract
The use of the haptic channel in multimodal interfaces holds several advantages for communication, one of them being that it allows decreasing the load of the visual and auditory channels. Tactons are abstract messages that can be used to communicate non-visually. In this paper we describe a study in which we tested if a set of four tactons can be used to convey a risk level (four states) through an enactive shoe. To this end, two experiments have been run. In the first experiment with 14 participants, we used a multidimensional scale analysis to identify the six most different tactons from an initial set of 30 tactons. In the second experiment (with 38 participants), we evaluated participants’ ability to recognize four preselected tactons among these six. For each trial, participants had to perform 12 identifications (three times for each tacton) until they reached a score greater than 95%. The number of trials required and the completion time are analyzed. We found that the repetition significantly improves the recognition rate of tactons but does not speed up the completion time.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
\(S_{1}\), \(S_{2} \), \(S_{3}\), \(S_4\), and \(S_{5}\) are respectively the mean scores at iteration 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
\(T _{1} \), T\( _{2} \), T\( _{3} \), T\( _{4} \), and T\( _{5} \) are respectively the mean completion times in seconds at iteration 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5.
References
Ayena J, Zaibi H, Otis M, Ménélas BA (2015) Home-based risk of falling assessment test using a closed-loop balance model. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng 99:1–1
Barkallah E, Otis, MJD, Ngomo S, Heraud M (2015) Measuring operator’s pain: toward evaluating musculoskeletal disorder at work. In: 2015 IEEE international conference on systems, man, and cybernetics (SMC) pp 2366–2371
Brewster S, Brown LM (2004) Tactons: structured tactile messages for non-visual information display. In: Proceedings of the fifth conference on Australasian user interface, vol 28. Australian Computer Society, Inc., 976313, pp 15–23
Brown LM, Brewster SA, Purchase HC (2006) Multidimensional tactons for non-visual information presentation in mobile devices. In: Proceedings of the 8th conference on Human-computer interaction with mobile devices and services. ACM, pp 231–238
Brown LM, Kaaresoja T (2006) Feel who’s talking: using tactons for mobile phone alerts. In: CHI’06 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems. ACM, pp 604–609
Chan A, MacLean K, McGrenere J (2005) Learning and identifying haptic icons under workload. In: Eurohaptics conference, 2005 and symposium on haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems, 2005. World haptics 2005. First joint. IEEE, pp 432–439
Cholewiak RW, Collins AA (2003) Vibrotactile localization on the arm: effects of place, space, and age. Percep Psychophys 65(7):1058–1077
Cooke T, Wallraven C, Bülthoff HH (2010) Multidimensional scaling analysis of haptic exploratory procedures. ACM Trans Appl Percept 7(1):1–17
Eichelberger AH, McCartt AT (2016) Toyota drivers’ experiences with dynamic radar cruise control, pre-collision system, and lane-keeping assist. J Saf Res 56:67–73
Enriquez M, MacLean KE (2004) Impact of haptic warning signal reliability in a time-and-safety-critical task. In: Haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems, 2004. HAPTICS’04. Proceedings. 12th International symposium. IEEE, pp 407–414
Enriquez M, MacLean K, Chita C (2006) Haptic phonemes: basic building blocks of haptic communication. In: Proceedings of the 8th international conferene on multimodal interfaces. ACM, pp 302–309
Fortin P, Otis MJD, Duchaine V, Cooperstock JR (2014) Event-based haptic vibration synthesis using a recursive filter for lower limb prosthetics. In: Haptic, audio and visual environments and games (HAVE), 2014 IEEE international symposium. IEEE, pp 47–52
Gagnon D, Ménélas BAJ, Otis MJD (2013) Qualitative risk of falling assessment based on gait abnormalities. In: Systems, man, and cybernetics (SMC), international conference. IEEE, pp 3966–3971
Gagnon D, Otis MJD, Ménélas BAJ (2013) A serious game for the learning of vibrotactile feedbacks presented under the foot: How many and how fast? In: Serious games development and applications. Springer, pp 288–298
Garzonis S, Jones S, Jay T, O’Neill E (2009) Auditory icon and earcon mobile service notifications: intuitiveness, learnability, memorability and preference. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems, CHI ’09. ACM, New York, USA, pp 1513–1522. https://doi.org/10.1145/1518701.1518932
Geldard FA (1957) Adventures in tactile literacy. Am Psychol 12(3):115
Hoggan E, Anwar S, Brewster SA (2007) Mobile multi-actuator tactile displays. In: Haptic and audio interaction design. Springer, pp 22–33
Hoggan E, Brewster S (2007) New parameters for tacton design. In: CHI’07 extended abstracts on human factors in computing systems, CHI EA’07. ACM, New York, USA, pp 2417–2422. https://doi.org/10.1145/1240866.1241017
Hwang I, Choi S (2012) Effect of mechanical ground on the vibrotactile perceived intensity of a handheld object. In: Proceedings of the 2012 International conference on haptics: perception, devices, mobility, and communication, volume part II. Springer, pp 61–66
Karuei I, MacLean K.E, Foley-Fisher Z, MacKenzie R, Koch S, El-Zohairy M (2011) Detecting vibrations across the body in mobile contexts. In: Proceedings of the SIGCHI conference on human factors in computing systems. ACM, 1979426, pp 3267–3276
Kaya D (2014) Proprioception: the forgotten sixth sense. Proprioception and gender. OMICS Group eBooks, Foster City
Kennedy PM, Inglis JT (2002) Distribution and behaviour of glabrous cutaneous receptors in the human foot sole. J. Physiol 538(3):995–1002
Lévesque V (2005) Blindness technology and haptics. Center for Intelligent Machines, pp 19–21
Luk J, Pasquero J, Little S, MacLean K, Levesque V, Hayward V (2006) A role for haptics in mobile interaction: initial design using a handheld tactile display prototype
MacLean KE (2000) Designing with haptic feedback. In: Proceedings 2000 ICRA, millennium conference. IEEE international conference on robotics and automation. Symposia proceedings (Cat. No.00CH37065), vol 1, pp 783–788. https://doi.org/10.1109/ROBOT.2000.844146
MacLean KE (2008) Foundations of transparency in tactile information design. IEEE Trans Haptics 1(2):84–95
MacLean K, Enriquez M (2003) Perceptual design of haptic icons. In: Proceedings of EuroHaptics, pp 351–363
Meier A, Matthies DJC, Urban B, Wettach R (2015) Exploring vibrotactile feedback on the body and foot for the purpose of pedestrian navigation. In: Proceedings of the 2Nd international workshop on sensor-based activity recognition and interaction, WOAR ’15. ACM, New York, pp 11:1–11:11
Ménélas BAJ, Otis MJD (2012) Design of a serious game for learning vibrotactile messages. In: Haptic audio visual environments and games (HAVE), 2012 IEEE international workshop. IEEE, pp 124–129
Ménélas BAJ, Picinali L, Bourdot P, Katz BF (2014) Non-visual identification, localization, and selection of entities of interest in a 3d environment. J Multimodal User Interfaces 8(3):243–256
Ménélas B, Picinalli L, Katz BFG, Bourdot P (2010) Audio haptic feedbacks for an acquisition task in a multi-target context. In: 3D User interfaces (3DUI), 2010 IEEE symposium, pp 51–54
Nordahl R, Serafin S, Nilsson NC, Turchet L (2012) Enhancing realism in virtual environments by simulating the audio-haptic sensation of walking on ground surfaces. In: Virtual reality short papers and posters (VRW), 2012 IEEE. IEEE, pp 73–74
Nussbaum M, Rorty A (1992) Essays on Aristotle’s De Anima. Clarendon Aristotle Series. Clarendon Press, pp 227–228
Otis MJD, Ménélas BAJ (2012) Toward an augmented shoe for preventing falls related to physical conditions of the soil. In: Systems, man, and cybernetics (SMC), IEEE international conference. IEEE, pp 3281–3285
Otis MJ, Ménélas BAJ (2014) Method to determine physical properties of the ground, foot-worn sensor therefore, and method to advise a user of a risk of falling based thereon. WO Patent App. PCT/CA2013/050,660
Otis MJD, Ayena JC, Tremblay LE, Fortin PE, Ménélas BAJ (2016) Use of an enactive insole for reducing the risk of falling on different types of soil using vibrotactile cueing for the elderly. PloS ONE 11(9):e0162107
Paneels S, Roberts JC (2010) Review of designs for haptic data visualization. IEEE Trans Haptics 3(2):119–137
Pietrzak T, Crossan A, Brewster SA, Martin B, Pecci I (2009) Creating usable pin array tactons for nonvisual information. IEEE Trans Haptics 2(2):61–72
Qian H, Kuber R, Sears A (2009) Towards identifying distinguishable tactons for use with mobile devices. In: Proceedings of the 11th international ACM SIGACCESS conference on computers and accessibility. ACM, pp 257–258
Rantala J, Raisamo R, Lylykangas J, Surakka V, Raisamo J, Salminen K, Pakkanen T, Hippula A (2009) Methods for presenting braille characters on a mobile device with a touchscreen and tactile feedback. IEEE Trans Haptics 2(1):28–39
Schneider OS, MacLean KE (2016) Studying design process and example use with macaron, a web-based vibrotactile effect editor. In: 2016 IEEE haptics symposium (HAPTICS). IEEE, pp 52–58
Serafin S, Turchet L, Nordahl R, Dimitrov S, Berrezag A, Hayward V (2010) Identification of virtual grounds using virtual reality haptic shoes and sound synthesis. In: Proceedings of eurohaptics symposium on haptic and audio-visual stimuli: enhancing experiences and interaction, pp 61–70
TactileLabs: Haptuator-high-bandwidth vibrotactile transducer (2012) Tactile Labs
Tan H, Gray R, Young JJ, Taylor R (2003) A haptic back display for attentional and directional cueing. J Haptics Res 3:20
Tan HZ, Reed CM, Durlach NI (2010) Optimum information transfer rates for communication through haptic and other sensory modalities. IEEE Trans Haptics 3(2):98–108
Ternes D, Maclean KE (2008) Designing large sets of haptic icons with rhythm. In: International conference on human haptic sensing and touch enabled computer applications. Springer, pp 199–208
van Erp JB, Spapé MM (2003) Distilling the underlying dimensions of tactile melodies. Proc Eurohaptics 2003:111–120
Velázquez R, Pissaloux E (2008) Tactile displays in human–machine interaction: four case studies. IJVR 7(2):51–58
Velãzquez R, Bazàn O, Magaña M (2009) A shoe-integrated tactile display for directional navigation. In: Intelligent robots and systems, 2009. IROS 2009. IEEE/RSJ international Conference. IEEE, pp 1235–1240
Visell Y, Law A, Cooperstock JR (2009) Touch is everywhere: floor surfaces as ambient haptic interfaces. IEEE Trans Haptics 2(3):148–159
Wickelmaier F (2003) An introduction to mds. Sound quality research unit. Aalborg University, Denmark
Yao HY, Hayward V (2010) Design and analysis of a recoil-type vibrotactile transducer. J Acoust Soc Am 128(2):619–627
Yatani K, Truong KN (2009) Semfeel: a user interface with semantic tactile feedback for mobile touch-screen devices. In: Proceedings of the 22nd annual ACM symposium on User interface software and technology. ACM, pp 111–120
Yu M, Piao YJ, Eun HI, Kim DW, Ryu MH, Kim NG (2010) Development of abnormal gait detection and vibratory stimulation system on lower limbs to improve gait stability. J Med Syst 34(5):787–797
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the financial support of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) from two discovery grants, numbered 418624-2013 and 418235-2012. We also acknowledge the financial support of SOVAR and the FUQAC. A special thanks, for the support provided by Dr. Martin J.-D. Otis while being a co-supervisor. We also acknowledge Ebangha L. and Kafunda D. for their reading and Ayena J. for his comments on the ANOVA analysis.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Chapwouo Tchakouté, L.D., Gagnon, D. & Ménélas, BA.J. Use of tactons to communicate a risk level through an enactive shoe. J Multimodal User Interfaces 12, 41–53 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-018-0260-8
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12193-018-0260-8