Exploring Tactile Perception: Development and Evaluation of the PinArray, a Novel Haptic Device
Bibliographic record
Abstract
Despite advances in vibrotactile displays, most existing systems are limited in their ability to deliver calibrated, frequency-differentiated stimulation across multiple touch modes. This constrains our understanding of how supra-threshold frequency modulation influences tactile perception, particularly in dynamic, shape-based interactions. To address this gap, we introduce the PinArray-a novel hybrid haptic device featuring a 4 × 3 array of independently actuated pins capable of delivering vibrations from 0 to 300 Hz. The PinArray uniquely supports static, passive, and active touch conditions, enabling nuanced exploration of tactile shape encoding. We evaluated the device in a user study examining the perception of edge-like shapes generated via frequency pairings. Results show that specific combinations, especially those involving static and dynamic frequency pairs, significantly enhance shape recognition. These findings highlight the device's potential for advancing both perceptual research and the development of expressive tactile interfaces.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.001 | 0.002 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Open science | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.002 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".