Effect of orientation on visual and vibrotactile letter identification

The effect of stimulus orientation of letters presented either visually or vibrotactually was examined to obtain basic information on sensory substitution using the tactile sense. The reaction time (RT) to identify the letters F and R presented in normal or mirror-image form at four orientations each was measured. In addition, conditions of 0 degree and 270 degrees of head rotation from vertical and arm rotation from the midline axis were employed. Data from 5 trained subjects showed that vibrotactile RTs were always longer than visual RTs. Stimulus rotation away from normal orientation increased visual RTs significantly but not vibrotactile RTs. Visual orientation effect then seemed to be determined by the body-coordinate system but not the vibrotactile orientation. Although further studies are warranted, from the results of this experiment, any convenient and constant stimulus orientation could be used with a wearable vibrotactile display system to exploit passive touch.