HapticArmrest: Remote Tactile Feedback on Touch Surfaces Using Combined Actuators

Interactive surfaces form an integral component of intelligent environments. In the paper, we describe HapticArmrest, a simple tactile interface that communicates tactual surface characteristic and form of interactive elements on direct touch surfaces. Spatially separating manual touch input and active tactile output allows for the combination of various types of tactile actuators for versatile haptic feedback. In a preliminary experiment, we indicate that our approach enables a reliable discrimination of virtual elements on touch surfaces solely based on tactile representations. We also assessed the hedonic and pragmatic qualities of the generated tactile stimuli by applying methods from the field of usability research.