An Investigation of Figure Recognition with Electrostatic Tactile Display.

The visually impaired must obtain shape information in a tactile manner. However, existing conventional graphics are static. We prepared a more useful, dynamic tactile display; we aimed to allow the visually impaired to recognize and draw figures via tactile feedback. We developed an electrostatic force-based tactile display and performed two preliminary evaluative experiments. We measured figure recognition rates and explored how users perceived figures that were displayed in a tactile manner. We describe the results and future planned improvements.