Tactons: structured tactile messages for non-visual information display

Brewster, S.A. and Brown, L.M. (2004) Tactons: structured tactile messages for non-visual information display. In: Australasian User Interface Conference 2004, Dunedin, New Zealand, 18-22 January 2004, pp. 15-23.

Abstract

Tactile displays are now becoming available in a form that can be easily used in a user interface. This paper describes a new form of tactile output. Tactons, or tactile icons, are structured, abstract messages that can be used to communicate messages non-visually. A range of different parameters can be used for Tacton construction including: frequency, amplitude and duration of a tactile pulse, plus other parameters such as rhythm and location. Tactons have the potential to improve interaction in a range of different areas, particularly where the visual display is overloaded, limited in size or not available, such as interfaces for blind people or in mobile and wearable devices. This paper describes Tactons, the parameters used to construct them and some possible ways to design them. Examples of where Tactons might prove useful in user interfaces are given.

• Item Type: Conference Proceedings
• Status: Published
• Refereed: Yes
• Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID: Brewster, Professor Stephen
• Authors: Brewster, S.A., and Brown, L.M.
• Subjects: Q Science > QA Mathematics > QA75 Electronic computers. Computer science
• College/School: College of Science and Engineering > School of Computing Science
• Publisher: Australian Computer Society
• ISSN: 1445-1336
• Copyright Holders: Copyright © 2004 Australian Computer Society
• First Published: First published in Proceedings of the Fifth Conference on Australasian User Interface
• Publisher Policy: Reproduced with permission of the publisher