A Haptic Back Display for Attentional and Directional Cueing                                                     

Hong Z. Tan,         Robert Gray,         J. Jay Young,        and Ryan Traylor          
Haptic Interface Research Laboratory                           Nissan Cambridge Basic Research   
Purdue University                           4 Cambridge Center, Cambridge, MA, 02142  
1285 Electrical Engineering Building                                       Currently at:         
West Lafayette, IN 47907                               Department of Applied Psychology   
{hongtan, youngj, traylorr}@purdue.edu                             Arizona State University East   
7001 E Williams Field Road, Bldg. 20 
Mesa, AZ 85212          
{robgray}@asu.edu         


ABSTRACT                                           
We have been developing a haptic back display using a 3-by-3 tactor array.  This paper             
reports two studies that investigated the use of such a display for delivering attention- and          
direction-related information to its user.  The first study measured the effectiveness of haptic       
cues in redirecting an observers visual spatial attention.  The observer was first tapped on the      
back, and then asked to detect a change between two similar visual scenes.  We found that              
reaction time decreased by an average of 41% (1630 ms) when the location of the tactor                 
coincided with the quadrant of the visual scene where a change occurred.  We also found that           
reaction time increased by an average of 19% (781 ms) when the locations of the tapping and            
visual change did not coincide.  Such a haptic attentional cueing system can be beneficial to a        
user who must attend to information in small areas within a large and complex visual display           
(e.g., an aircraft cockpit).  In the second study, sequenced pulses were employed to impart            
directional information.  We found that nave and minimally-trained observers were able to             
discern the directions of a set of horizontal, vertical and diagonal directional lines with an overall 
accuracy of 81%.  Means of improving the overall accuracy were suggested and tested.  These            
directional lines can be applied to a haptic navigation guidance or situation awareness system.        


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