How You Feel The World Impacts How You See It
ScienceDaily (Apr. 10, 2009) — In the classic waterfall illusion, if you stare at the downward motion of a waterfall for some period of time, stationary objects — such as rocks — appear to drift upward. MIT neuroscientists have found that this phenomenon, called motion aftereffect, occurs not only in our visual perception but also in our tactile perception, and that these senses actually influence one another. Put another way, how you feel the world can actually change how you see it — and vice versa.
This stimulator was used in a study to show that how humans feel the world can actually change how they see it -- and vice versa.
MIT-led team creates touch-based illusion
Mind trick yields new insights on perception
In the visual illusion known as the apparent motion quartet, two dots are presented at diagonally opposite corners of an imaginary square. When the pattern alternates between the two diagonals--top left/bottom right followed by top right/bottom left--people perceive the dots as moving back and forth either horizontally or vertically. After a period of time, typically a minute or two, most observers report that the axis of motion appears to flip from vertical to horizontal or vice versa.
An example of the illusion can be seen at web.mit.edu/~tkonkle/www/AmbiguousQuartet.html.
To create a tactile version of this illusion, Olivia Carter, a postdoctoral researcher at Harvard University, and Talia Konkle, a graduate student in Moore's MIT lab, used a new piezoelectric stimulator device developed by Qi Wang and Vincent Hayward at McGill University. This device, originally designed as a computer Braille display, uses a centimeter-square array composed of 60 "tactors" to deliver precisely controlled touch stimuli to the finger tips of volunteer subjects.
When volunteer subjects were given the diagonally alternating stimuli, they perceived them as moving smoothly back and forth--and just as with the visual illusion, the direction of apparent motion flipped back and forth from vertical to horizontal, on average about twice per minute, even though there was no change in the stimulus itself.
Haptic Memory Game
The video below describes the memory game and provides a good introduction to laterotactile skin stimulation.
Sources:
How You Feel The World Impacts How You See It
MIT-led team creates touch-based illusion - MIT News Office
Laterotactile.com - Projects - Tactile Graphics
A Haptic Memory Game using the STReSS2 Tactile Display on Vimeo
Related:
What You See Is What You Feel -- Telis 2009 (409): 1 -- ScienceNOW
In a Sensory Hack, What You Touch Affects What You See | 80beats | Discover Magazine
Scientists create touch-based illusion
Laterotactile.com - Devices - STReSS
MIT : Brain and Cognitive Sciences : People : Faculty : Christopher Moore
T.Konkle.Demos
The Moore Lab
Current Biology - Motion Aftereffects Transfer between Touch and Vision
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