NAVIGONS - Analyzing tactons for navigation

Abstract

Vibro-tactile navigation systems use the sense of touch across numerous application contexts and motivations. The vibrotactile patterns (tactons) deployed to transmit the information are often tailored to the scenario and the respective hardware. Without an appropriate classification system, it is difficult to compare tactons with each other or to identify their potential for new use cases. Therefore, we apply the previously developed taxonomy VibTacX to a set of tactons used for navigation tasks – NAVIGONS. Following, we present and discuss the identified characteristics of the use cases. Furthermore, the application of VibTacX acts as a filter system to identify and investigate similarities and differences independent of the use cases. This procedure may be the basis for the structured development of tactons. Hence, we conclude with an outlook on future design guidelines for vibro-tactile user interfaces and the qualitative improvement of tactons.