FiDTouch: A 3D Wearable Haptic Display for the Finger Pad

Abstract: The applications of fingertip haptic devices have spread to various fields from revolutionizing virtual reality and medical training simulations to facilitating remote robotic operations, proposing great potential for enhancing user experiences, improving training outcomes, and new forms of interaction. In this work, we present FiDTouch, a 3D wearable haptic device that delivers cutaneous stimuli to the finger pad, such as contact, pressure, encounter, skin stretch, and vibrotactile feedback. The application of a tiny inverted Delta robot in the mechanism design allows providing accurate contact and fast changing dynamic stimuli to the finger pad surface. The performance of the developed display was evaluated in a two-stage user study of the perception of static spatial contact stimuli and skin stretch stimuli generated on the finger pad. The proposed display, by providing users with precise touch and force stimuli, can enhance user immersion and efficiency in the fields of human-computer and human-robot interactions.