“Tap Stimulation”: An Alternative To Vibrations To Convey The Apparent Haptic Motion Illusion

Vibrotactile sensations can be used to elicit apparent haptic motion illusions, which consist in using discrete vibration patterns to convey an illusory continuous moving sensation across the skin. However, experiencing prolonged vibrations is also known to increase the cognitive load. This study investigates whether continuous mechanical stimulations, or taps, that are activated in sequence, can also create a convincing illusion of haptic motion across the skin. Moreover, we also test whether an increased curvature of the contact surface impacts the quality of the felt illusion. We conducted a comparative psychophysical experiment enrolling 18 participants showing that the proposed “tap” stimulation was as efficient as a 120 Hz vibrotactile stimulation in conveying the haptic motion illusion. Moreover, results showed that the curvature of the contact surface had little effect on the quality of the sensation. Thus, using continuous mechanical stimulations that do not vibrate can be a good alternative to vibrations for rendering haptic sensations in hand-held devices in a lot of applications including navigation guidance.