Pm. Taylor et al., SURFACE FEEDBACK FOR VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENT SYSTEMS USING ELECTRORHEOLOGICAL FLUIDS, International journal of modern physics b, 10(23-24), 1996, pp. 3011-3018
A tactile array system, when incorporated in an information system, pr
ovides a means of conveying tactile data to the user. Such arrays have
many applications including simulators for training purposes and Brai
lle systems for the blind. The use of ER fluids in these systems would
provide an inexpensive alternative to the existing technologies becau
se of the simple and flexible designs. An experimental study has been
conducted which involves a simple 5x5 array of tactels, each tactel be
ing independently energised in order to configure a variety of shapes.
A series of tests are carried out on two different types of ER fluids
under a range of electric fields and sensor speeds. The results show
that for the given tactel spacing, the programmed shapes are easily de
tected for all conditions and are directly comparable to similar tests
undertaken on a solid shape.