IEEE Trans Haptics. 2022 Apr-Jun;15(2):458-463. doi: 10.1109/TOH.2021.3136638. Epub 2022 Jun 27.
Vibrations on the back of a person can convey information about direction through sequentially switching on two vibration motors. For perception of direction the oblique effect can occur, meaning that perception of cardinal directions is more precise than perception of oblique directions. We investigated the role of the positioning of the vibrations with respect to the spine. In the first condition all vibration motors were placed in a circle around the spine ('Circle' condition) and direction was conveyed by switching on vibration motors on opposite sides of the circle. In the second condition the vibrations were placed in two semi-circles of which the centers were on the left and right sides of the back ('Semi-circle' condition). We found that participants showed larger deviations as well as a larger spread for oblique directions than for cardinal directions in both conditions. This indicates that the oblique effect occurred. Therefore, the oblique effect can occur irregardless of the positioning of the vibration motors with respect to the spine. Both deviations and spread were larger in the 'Semi-circle' condition than in the 'Circle' condition suggesting an advantage for centering motors around the spine, although this might have been influenced by the distance between vibrations.
人背部的振动可以通过依次开启两个振动电机来传达关于方向的信息。对于方向的感知，可能会出现斜向效应，这意味着对基本方向的感知比对斜向方向的感知更准确。我们研究了振动相对于脊柱的位置的作用。在第一种情况下，所有振动电机都放置在脊柱周围的一个圆圈中（“圆圈”条件），通过打开圆圈相对侧的振动电机来传达方向。在第二种情况下，振动被放置在两个半圆中，其中心位于背部的左右两侧（“半圆”条件）。我们发现，在两种情况下，参与者在斜向方向上的偏差和分散度都比在基本方向上大。这表明斜向效应发生了。因此，斜向效应的发生与振动电机相对于脊柱的位置无关。在“半圆”条件下，偏差和分散度都比在“圆圈”条件下大，这表明将电机集中在脊柱周围更有优势，尽管这可能受到振动之间距离的影响。
