Development of a tactile stimulator with simultaneous visual and auditory stimulation using E-Prime software

Abstract

In this study, a tactile stimulator was developed, which can stimulate visual and auditory senses simultaneously by using the E-Prime software. This study tried to compensate for systematic stimulation control and other problems that occurred with previously developed tactile stimulators. The newly developed system consists of three units: a control unit, a drive unit and a vibrator. Since the developed system is a small, lightweight, simple structure with low electrical consumption, a maximum of 35 stimulation channels and various visual and auditory stimulation combinations without delay time, the previous systematic problem is corrected in this study. The system was designed to stimulate any part of the body including the fingers. Since the developed tactile stimulator used E-Prime software, which is widely used in the study of visual and auditory senses, the stimulator is expected to be highly practical due to a diverse combination of stimuli, such as tactile–visual, tactile–auditory, visual–auditory and tactile–visual–auditory stimulation.

Keywords::

• tactile stimulator
• simultaneous stimulation
• tactile–visual–auditory stimulation
• E-Prime software

Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the Pioneer Research Center Program through the National Research Foundation of Korea funded by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technology (2011-0027920). This work was also partially supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program through an NRF grant funded by the MEST (No. 2009-0084784).