A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception

To improve touchscreen accessibility, it has been proved efficient to integrate tactile feedback into touchscreen devices. Two typical techniques can be used to offer tactile feedback on smartphones, namely, <italic>mechanical vibration</italic> (MV) and <italic>ultrasonic vibratio...

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Main Authors: Shaowei Chu, Huawei Tu
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2022-01-01
Series:IEEE Access
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9757201/
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author Shaowei Chu
Huawei Tu
author_facet Shaowei Chu
Huawei Tu
author_sort Shaowei Chu
collection DOAJ
description To improve touchscreen accessibility, it has been proved efficient to integrate tactile feedback into touchscreen devices. Two typical techniques can be used to offer tactile feedback on smartphones, namely, <italic>mechanical vibration</italic> (MV) and <italic>ultrasonic vibration</italic> (UV). However, (a) whether MV and UV are equally perceived and evaluated on usability is unknown, and if not, (b) which technique/feedback provides better usability and satisfaction. In this study, a comparative user study was conducted to evaluate user performance on tactile codes perception generated by MV and UV techniques. 10 tactile codes were designed using the two techniques, and 16 sighted and 5 visually impaired people were invited to take part in a tactile code perception experiment. Tactile codes perception accuracy, response time, and satisfaction on the MV and UV were recorded during the experiment. The experimental results show that the user perception performance of MV was significantly better than UV for both sighted and visually impaired participants. Participants obtained an accuracy approximately 3&#x0025; higher, with the response time at least 3 s faster, and user satisfaction significantly higher (6.1 vs. 4.6 on a 7-point Likert rating scale) when using MV. Both sighted and visually impaired participants assessed MV with a higher preference over UV. Our results suggest that MV fits better to applications that require precise tactile code perception, for which UV may not be as suitable due to its lower recognition efficiency.
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spelling doaj.art-b3e54a5696c14ed3a9f15715f63643062022-12-22T01:16:38ZengIEEEIEEE Access2169-35362022-01-0110410384104610.1109/ACCESS.2022.31675269757201A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code PerceptionShaowei Chu0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5520-296XHuawei Tu1https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9689-9767College of Media Engineering, Communication University of Zhejiang, Hangzhou, ChinaDepartment of Computer Science and Information Technology, La Trobe University, Melbourne, VIC, AustraliaTo improve touchscreen accessibility, it has been proved efficient to integrate tactile feedback into touchscreen devices. Two typical techniques can be used to offer tactile feedback on smartphones, namely, <italic>mechanical vibration</italic> (MV) and <italic>ultrasonic vibration</italic> (UV). However, (a) whether MV and UV are equally perceived and evaluated on usability is unknown, and if not, (b) which technique/feedback provides better usability and satisfaction. In this study, a comparative user study was conducted to evaluate user performance on tactile codes perception generated by MV and UV techniques. 10 tactile codes were designed using the two techniques, and 16 sighted and 5 visually impaired people were invited to take part in a tactile code perception experiment. Tactile codes perception accuracy, response time, and satisfaction on the MV and UV were recorded during the experiment. The experimental results show that the user perception performance of MV was significantly better than UV for both sighted and visually impaired participants. Participants obtained an accuracy approximately 3&#x0025; higher, with the response time at least 3 s faster, and user satisfaction significantly higher (6.1 vs. 4.6 on a 7-point Likert rating scale) when using MV. Both sighted and visually impaired participants assessed MV with a higher preference over UV. Our results suggest that MV fits better to applications that require precise tactile code perception, for which UV may not be as suitable due to its lower recognition efficiency.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9757201/Vibrotactileultrasonic vibrationtactile interfacestouchscreen interactionempirical studies
spellingShingle Shaowei Chu
Huawei Tu
A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
IEEE Access
Vibrotactile
ultrasonic vibration
tactile interfaces
touchscreen interaction
empirical studies
title A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
title_full A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
title_fullStr A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
title_full_unstemmed A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
title_short A Comparative Evaluation of Mechanical Vibration and Ultrasonic Vibration on Smartphones in Tactile Code Perception
title_sort comparative evaluation of mechanical vibration and ultrasonic vibration on smartphones in tactile code perception
topic Vibrotactile
ultrasonic vibration
tactile interfaces
touchscreen interaction
empirical studies
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9757201/
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