A Touch Screen Interface Design with Tactile Feedback

Abstract

Various information displays are becoming available for implementing new kinds of human computer interaction (HCI) methods. Touch screen devices become the most popular choice among many types and models. They have been used in wide range of applications and are proven to be a useful infrastructure for creating intuitive HCI. In spite of their popularity, there are some weak points. The most serious drawback is their hardness for operation especially for the weak in information technology such as elderly and blind users. A tactile feedback function has a potential ability for enabling them to make full use of the devices. We consider the tactile interaction as 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 principle for implementing mutually discriminable tactile stimuli is required. The principle should define multiple stimulus patterns giving users distinctive tactile impressions. Our goal is to empirically work out the principle through developing an experiment system for checking varied tactile effects and discovering good solutions. In this paper, we elaborate the system implemented by using a type of touch screen tactile display and some experiments conducted for exploring the principle.