Thermal sensation presentation to the forehead using electrical stimulation: comparison with other tactile modalities

Presentation of warm and cold sensations is effective in improving the immersion of virtual reality contents, and there were several proposals to embed temperature presentation device in head mounted displays (HMD). However, many thermal presentation methods with HMD have issues such as heat accumulation and inability to present quick change of temperature. Here we propose to use electrical stimulation to present the temperature sensation on the forehead. We used an electro-tactile display with 192 electrodes to investigate distribution of cold, warm, pressure, vibration and pain sensations elicited by electrical stimulation. We also compared between anodic and cathodic stimuli. As a result, it was confirmed that cold sensation was easier to present by electrical stimulation than warm sensation, but it was not as robust as pressure and vibration sensations.