Towards shear tactile displays with DEAs

Much research has been done on the development of tactile displays using Dielectric Elastomer Actuators (DEAs). It has been argued that they offer the potential to create low-cost full-page tactile displays — not achievable with conventional actuator technologies. All research to date has considered tactile elements moving perpendicular to the skin and thus applying a normal force distribution. In contrast to previous work, we have investigated the use of laterally moving tactile elements that apply shear forces to the skin. This allows for the areal expansion of the DEA to be exploited directly, and a tactile display could be made with no elements moving out of the plane. There is evidence that humans are very sensitive to shear force distributions, and that in some cases a shear stimulus is indistinguishable from a normal stimulus. We present a prototype shear tactile display actuated by a DEA, and demonstrate that the DEA can generate the necessary forces and displacements. We also present and discuss different display topologies.