Relative Performance Using Haptic and/or Touch-Produced Auditory Cues in a Remote Absolute Texture Identification Task

The current study assessed the relative effectiveness with which unimodal tactile, unimodal touch-produced auditory, and bimodal tactile + auditory cues contribute to the performance of an absolute texture identification task via remote touch. The study contributes to our fundamental understanding of the unimodal perception and intersensory integration of multimodal surface texture cues generated during surface exploration with rigid probes. The results also have significant implications for the design of unimodal and multisensory displays for use with teleoperation and virtual environment systems, as it addresses which modality(ies) may be used to most effectively present sensory information about remotely explored surface textures.