Dot and stripe patterns are frequently used in tactile maps depicting constant space domains. For example, when showing a space occupied by a massive object such as a building, a dot pattern with closely spaced dots or a stripe pattern with closely spaced lines is used. In contrast, a dot pattern with widely spaced dots or a stripe pattern with widely spaced lines is used to show open spaces like public squares. The relationship between the spacing of dot or line patterns and texture perception, however, is not entirely clear. In addition, factors influencing the discriminability of two different but similar textures in terms of dot and stripe pattern have yet to be revealed. In this study, we examined the perception and discriminability of the human forefinger with various dot and stripe textures in order to develop more effective dot and stripe patterns for tactile maps. In this presentation, we introduce these useful results for developing tactile maps that effectively apply dot and stripe pattern textures.
Prior knowledge of topic assumed: Low
Contains advanced technical content: No
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