Design, implementation, and case study of a pragmatic vibrotactile belt

Recently, much research in the area of haptic technologies has focused on the development of waist-worn vibrotactile belts as substitution or augmentation modalities for audio-visual information. Vibrotactile belts have been used in varied applications, such as navigational aids, spatial orientation display, and balance control. Researchers have mostly focused on the functionality of these vibrotactile belts for specific applications while neglecting performance and usability. Considering the versatility of a vibrotactile belt, we previously conducted a study on the design requirements for vibrotactile belts and introduced an implementation based on these design guidelines. This paper builds on our previous work and provides details for the implementation of a ubiquitous wearable vibrotactile belt. A case study is presented in which the proposed belt was used by a researcher for a novel application of teaching participants choreographed dance. The usability of the belt is demonstrated from the researcher’s perspective in terms of functionality and performance and from the participants’ perspectives in terms of usability attributes such as comfort and unobtrusiveness.