Wearable vibrotactile actuators are non-intrusive and inexpensive means to provide haptic feedback directly to the user's skin. Complex spatiotemporal stimuli can be achieved by combining multiple of these actuators, using the funneling illusion. This illusion can funnel the sensation to a particular position between the actuators, thereby creating virtual actuators. However, using the funneling illusion to create virtual actuation points is not robust and leads to sensations that are difficult to locate. We postulate that poor localization can be improved by considering the dispersion and attenuation of the wave propagation on the skin. We used the inverse filter technique to compute the delays and amplification of each frequency to correct the distortion and create sharp sensations that are easier to detect. We developed a wearable device stimulating the volar surface of the forearm composed of four independently controlled actuators. A psychophysical study involving twenty participants showed that the focused sensation improves confidence in the localization by 20% compared to the non-corrected funneling illusion. We anticipate our results to improve the control of wearable vibrotactile devices used for emotional touch or tactile communication.

We examined what pedestrians look at when walking through a parking garage. Thirty-six participants walked a short route in a parking garage while their eye movements and head rotations were recorded with a Tobii Pro Glasses 2 eye-tracker. The participants’ fixations were then classified into 14 areas of interest. The results showed that pedestrians often looked at the back (20.0%), side (7.5%), and front (4.2%) of parked cars, and at approaching cars (8.8%). Much attention was also paid to the ground (20.1%). The wheels of cars (6.8%) and the driver in approaching cars (3.2%) received attention as well. In conclusion, this study showed that eye movements are largely functional in the sense that they appear to assist in safe navigation through the parking garage. Pedestrians look at a variety of sides and features of the car, suggesting that displays on future automated cars should be omnidirectionally visible. Practitioner summary: This study measured where pedestrians look when walking through a parking garage. It was found that the back, side, and wheels of cars attract considerable attention. This knowledge may be important for the development of automated cars that feature so-called external human-machine interfaces (eHMIs).