Investigating perceptual discrimination thresholds for attributes of whole-body vibration

Understanding the limitations of haptic perception in humans is critical for the successful design of effective haptic feedback systems, however, it is unclear how perceived discrimination thresholds relate to specific qualitative perceptual attributes. In this work, it was aimed to estimate quantitative perceptual discrimination thresholds for six qualitative attributes of whole-body vibration, which included "weak", "up-and-down", "tingling", "repetitive", "even", and "fading". A series of experiments were conducted using a multimodal vibration platform and an electrodynamic shaker, where participants performed a magnitude estimation task that systematically varied physical parameters (intensity, frequency, modulation, decay rate) from reference measures to assess perceived discrimination thresholds, testing each attribute separately. Unique and attribute-specific relationships between physical parameters and perceptual insights were found. Key findings include a consistent just-noticable difference in level threshold ([Formula: see text]) of ≤ 2 dB for the "weak" attribute, a lower frequency threshold ([Formula: see text]) between 10 - 20 Hz for "tingling" (at a 120 Hz reference) and ≤ 5 Hz (at a 30 Hz reference) for "up-and-down", a lower modulation frequency threshold ([Formula: see text]) between 0.2 - 0.4 Hz for "repetitive" (at a 2.4 Hz reference), a lower bandwidth threshold ([Formula: see text]) between 1 - 2 Hz for "even" (at a 3 Hz reference), and a threshold ([Formula: see text]) of ≤ 0.5 for the decay rate δ (at a 0.5 reference) for "fading". The findings represent quantitative evidence to establish a framework for relating specific physical signal parameters to qualitative perceptual attributes and also inform the design of perceptually aligned haptic systems that match haptic feedback to human sensory limits.