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Towards Improving Spatial Orientation using Electrical Muscle Stimulation as Tactile and Force Feedback

Published:03 December 2023Publication History

ABSTRACT

Navigating the environment can be challenging, especially when faced with vision or hearing limitations, such as darkness and visual impairments. To address this issue, we propose using electrical muscle stimulation (EMS) to convey spatial information and assist users in avoiding obstacles. We map direction to EMS channels and distance to current intensity, with force-feedback for closer proximity and tactile EMS feedback for greater proximity. An experimental study (n=12) was conducted to evaluate the concept and gain insights into the qualitative perception of EMS. Participants were able to accurately estimate encoded distance (85.7% accuracy) and direction (99.5% accuracy). Our findings demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of using tactile and force feedback EMS to convey spatial information comprehensibly.

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    • Published in

      cover image ACM Other conferences
      MUM '23: Proceedings of the 22nd International Conference on Mobile and Ubiquitous Multimedia
      December 2023
      607 pages
      ISBN:9798400709210
      DOI:10.1145/3626705

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      • Published: 3 December 2023

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