We present a floor tile designed to provide the impression of walking on different ground materials, such as gravel, carpet, or stone. The device uses affordable and commercially available vibrotactile actuators and force sensors, and as such might one day be cost-effectively used in everyday environments. The control software is based on a lumped model of physical interactions between the foot and the ground surface. We have prototyped a measurement scheme for calibrating the device to match real-world ground materials.
Yon Visell, Jeremy R. Cooperstock, Bruno L. Giorda