Dynamic, refreshable tactile displays offer a method of displaying graphical information to people who are blind or visually impaired. Texture, which is already used as an effective method to present graphical information in physical tactile diagrams, conceivably constitutes the best way to present graphics through a tactile display. This thesis presents the design of a new low-cost haptic matrix display device capable of displaying graphical information through virtual textures. The perception of virtual textures through the display is examined through three main experiments. The first two experiments examine the perception of square wave gratings through the device. The final experiment examines the effect of texture adaptation when using the device, and compares it to exploration with a handheld probe and the bare finger. The results show that haptic matrix displays can be used to display graphical information through texture and offer guidelines in the production of such textures.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-3484 |
| Date | 11 May 2011 |
| Creators | Headley, Patrick |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © The Author |
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