Investigating tactile stimulation in symbiotic systems

The core characteristics of tactile stimuli, i.e., recognition reliability and tolerance to ambient interference, make them an ideal candidate to be integrated into a symbiotic system. The selection of the appropriate stimulation is indeed important in order not to hinder the interaction from the user’s perspective. Here we present the process of selecting the most adequate tactile stimulation delivered by a tactile vest while users were engaged in an absorbing activity, namely playing a video-game. A total of 20 participants (mean age 24.78; SD = 1.57) were involved. Among the eight tactile stimuli selected, we found that the most frequently chosen stimulus was the one stimulating the back of the participant from the upper to the lower area.