TactiGlove - A Guidance System to Effectively find Hidden Spots in 3D Space

Research on vibrotactile navigation and guidance has been a topic of broad interest for the HCI community for quite a while. However, common to most of the presented approaches is a 'map-like' navigation to reach waypoints or targets in two-dimensional contexts. Motivated by the need to simplify and speed up searching tasks in maintenance, training or other everyday situations, a prototype for a three-dimensional guidance system, composed of a glove with integrated 6-DOF positioning sensor technology and vibrotactile actuators, was developed. In opposition to the formerly mentioned systems, the purpose of our TactiGlove system is to guide persons to point-shaped, maybe hidden locations in 3D space or annotated digital objects that have been lost. In this paper we present the implemented system in detail, focusing on hardware and software aspects as well as on the different developed tactile feedback models. System evaluation with a lab-based user study based on a Fitt's law experiment for traditional UIs revealed that guidance by the TactiGlove was intuitively understood by most of the volunteers, although the system performance varied a lot between the different feedback models. Preliminary results identified much room for improvements and motivates to pursue research on the TactiGlove.