A touch screen interface design with tactile feedback for practical applications

Abstract

A touch screen interface becomes the most popular information display for implementing intuitive human computer interaction methods. In spite of its popularity, there are some weak points. The most serious drawback is its hardness for operation especially for elderly and blind users. A tactile feedback function has a potential ability for enabling them to make full use of the device. We consider the tactile interaction as a communication modality for complementing other channels such as visual and auditory senses and improving intuitiveness for various operations. To make the tactile interface a practical communication channel, a design guideline for implementing mutually discriminable tactile stimuli is required. In this paper, we describe the guideline by empirically defining multiple stimulus patterns giving users distinctive tactile impressions. We also elaborate experiment systems implemented by using a type of touch screen tactile display and some experiments conducted for checking varied tactile effects and discovering good solutions.