Exploring the Limits of Vibrotactile Numeric Information Delivery

We test ActiVibe, a previously reported vibrotactile method for communicating numeric values between 1-10, in the face of an audio distractor task, as well as when conveying not just one numeric value in a single message, but three values in succession. Results of a 12 participant user study comparing three different rendering methods indicate that ActiVibe maintains its advantage vs. two different duration-based methods when conveying a single value, but largely loses this advantage when presenting three sequential values. In these challenging conditions, the more concise duration-only approach may be preferable since it uses less power and demands attention for less time.