Tactile Notifications for Truly Mobile Scenarios

Depending on specific mobile situations, different human senses are used to navigate safely through the environment. This is esspecially true for the visual and – depending on the situation – the auditive senses. In contrast, the tactile sense is often mainly unused. This makes conveying information via the tactile modality appealing.

Development of an approach to enhance today's mobile devices with possibilities to convey nonvisual information should aim at a small, affordable realisation which fits in people's daily lives. One possibility could be a vibrating wristband – either as the complete device or as an extender.

In a series of experiments, we evaluate the usefulness of nonvisual, iconic notifications for truly mobile scenarios. The results of an experiment targeting the influence of real life mobile situations on the recognition rates of different vibration rhythms are promising and motivate further research in this direction.