Vibrotactile Cues for Motion Guidance

In this paper, we have developed motion guiding device with utilizing Kinect of Microsoft Inc. for motion capturing sensor and phantom sensation which is famous tactile illusion effect generating space and direction induced vibrational information. The system detects real time motion of arm and its designated path. Then it guides arm motion along with the detected path with directional vibration information. The directional information of upper arm and lower arm was generated in order for the motion guidance by vibrations with the consideration of the pose of the arm. Instead of the discrete vibration in the vicinity of the vibrating motor, we could express continuous vibration for generating locational feedback along the arm with tactile illusion effect which induces the intentional motion. In order to evaluate the vibrational algorithm, the tactile illusion effect was implemented in the motion guidance experiments of the extension and flexion motion of the elbow joint.