TeslaTouch: electrovibration for touch surfaces

TLDR: The proposed technology is based on the electrovibration principle, does not use any moving parts and provides a wide range of tactile feedback sensations to fingers moving across a touch surface, which enables the design of a wide variety of interfaces that allow the user to feel virtual elements through touch.

Abstract: We present a new technology for enhancing touch interfaces with tactile feedback. The proposed technology is based on the electrovibration principle, does not use any moving parts and provides a wide range of tactile feedback sensations to fingers moving across a touch surface. When combined with an interactive display and touch input, it enables the design of a wide variety of interfaces that allow the user to feel virtual elements through touch. We present the principles of operation and an implementation of the technology. We also report the results of three controlled psychophysical experiments and a subjective user evaluation that describe and characterize users' perception of this technology. We conclude with an exploration of the design space of tactile touch screens using two comparable setups, one based on electrovibration and another on mechanical vibrotactile actuation.