From finger friction and induced vibrations to brain activation: Tactile comparison between real and virtual textile fabrics

The objective is to compare the tactile rendering of real and virtual textile surfaces. A grooved woven (twill) and a hairy fabric (velvet) were studied. The virtual fabrics were simulated with a tactile device. The comparison was done by measuring the finger interaction in terms of coefficient of friction (COF) and induced vibrations, and brain activation by electroencephalography (EEG). EEG showed that the real and virtual twill fabrics are close, contrary to real and virtual velvets. The finger friction showed that for both fabrics the rendering of virtual compared to real fabrics is very good in terms of COF, low in terms of finger induced vibrations in high frequencies, but differs for the velvet texture for low frequencies.