Development of high resolution electrostatic tactile display

Abstract

In this study, we demonstrate an electrovibration tactile display with an array of electrodes. Electovibration is a promising stimulus method for tactile feedback in mobile devices. The electrovibration tactile displays have been developed for the last several decades. However, these studies focused on application of the tactile display. The resolution of the tactile display, which is important for tactile sensation, is not investigated. In this study, we developed a electrovibration tactile display with high resolution. The tactile display consists of an array of electrodes with the width of 0.95 mm. The electrodes are arranged with the interval of 0.05 mm. The resulting resolution is 1 mm. We established the fabrication process of the tactile display and evaluated the fundamental characteristics. The results indicated that the perception was determined by the amplitude of the applied voltage. And also, the perception was not related to the contacting area and applied voltage. The proposed tactile display was able to present a spatial electrovibration stimulus and required optimization of the applied voltage.