Investigation of Error in 2D Vibrotactile Position Cues with Respect to Visual and Haptic Display Properties: A Radial Expansion Model for Improved Cuing

Abstract

We present a human factors experiment aimed at investigating certain systematic errors in locating position cues on a rectangular array of vibrating motors. Such a task is representative of haptic signals providing supplementary information in a collaborative or guided exploration of some dataset. In this context, both the visual size and presence of correct answer reinforcement may be subject to change. Consequently, we considered the effects of these variables on position identification. We also investigated five types of stimulus points based on the stimulus’ position relative to adjacent motors. As visual size increases, it initially demonstrates the dominant effect on error magnitude, then correct answer feedback plays a role in larger sizes. Radial error, roughly the radial difference in the stimulus and response position, modeled the systematic error. We applied a quadratic fit and estimated a calibration procedure within a 2-fold cross validation.