Crossmodal information for visual and haptic discrimination

Both our visual and haptic systems contribute to the perception of the three dimensional world, especially the proximal perception of objects. The interaction of these systems has been the subject of some debate over the years, ranging from the philosophically posed Molyneux problem to the more pragmatic examination of their psychophysical relationship. To better understand the nature of this interaction we have performed a variety of experiments characterizing the detection, discrimination, and production of 3D shape. A stimulus set of 25 complex, natural appearing, noisy 3D target objects were statistically specified in the Fourier domain and manufactured using a 3D printer. A series of paired-comparison experiments examined subjects' unimodal (visual-visual and haptic-haptic) and crossmodal (visual-haptic) perceptual abilities. Additionally, subjects sculpted objects using uni- or crossmodal source information. In all experiments, the performance in the unimodal conditions wer...

• Type: Journal
• Year: 2009
• Where: HVEI
• Authors: Flip Phillips, Eric J. L. Egan
• Keywords: Emerging Technology, Haptic Systems, HVEI 2009, Spatial Frequency, Unimodal