TacTex: A Textile Interface with Seamlessly-Integrated Electrodes for High-Resolution Electrotactile Stimulation

This paper presents TacTex, a textile-based interface that provides high-resolution haptic feedback and touch-tracking capabilities. TacTex utilizes electrotactile stimulation, which has traditionally posed challenges due to limitations in textile electrode density and quantity. TacTex overcomes these challenges by employing a multi-layer woven structure that separates conductive weft and warp electrodes with non-conductive yarns. The driving system for TacTex includes a power supply, sensing board, and switch boards to enable spatial and temporal control of electrical stimuli on the textile, while simultaneously monitoring voltage changes. TacTex can stimulate a wide range of haptic effects, including static and dynamic patterns and different sensation qualities, with a resolution of 512 × 512 and based on linear electrodes spaced as closely as 2mm. We evaluate the performance of the interface with user studies and demonstrate the potential applications of TacTex interfaces in everyday textiles for adding haptic feedback.