Haptic perception of material properties

This chapter starts with a brief introduction of experimental methods that are commonly used to investigate haptic perception. Different experimental methods shed light on different aspects, so it is preferable to approach the study of material properties from different directions. The chapter presents experimental results on the haptic perception of roughness, compliance, and temperature. A more explorative way of investigating human haptic perception is to give participants a set of stimuli and ask them to order or sort them. In the first haptic search experiment, two‐dimensional stimulus displays are created that were reminiscent of the displays used in visual experiments. In the described discrimination experiments, the stimuli that had to be compared always were of the same stimulus type, either thin, thick, or sandwich. In a discrimination experiment of temperatures, it was found that the differences between the end temperatures in the first experiment were below the threshold.