Repeating Bumps and Perception of Regularity: A Study on Effect of Vibrotactile Signal Shape

In addition to some of the most studied perceptual dimensions like roughness, hardness, friction etc., regularity is another important dimension for the study of vibrotactile perception. In this paper, we investigate the perception of regularity induced by repeating individual bumps, which serves as a fundamental signal form. We modulate the signal using four parameters: 1) amplitude of each bump, 2) duration of each bump, 3) repetition period, and 4) temporal irregularity of onset. Furthermore, to evaluate the perception across different usage scenarios, we also investigate the effect of the contact method by employing three common interaction media: Palm-held, Wristband, and Finger Ring. We conducted user studies to evaluate the effects of these factors. The results show that all four signal parameters significantly influence the perception of regularity. In contrast, regarding the contact methods, the results indicate no statistically significant difference in regularity perception scores, demonstrating the robustness of regularity perception across wearable form factors. The findings of this paper serve as a helpful reference for designing vibrotactile rendering that takes the perceptual dimension of regularity into account.