Cross-modal interfaces display information equally across modalities. These interfaces can be beneficial when visual input and output capabilities are limited, for example in a car. The objective of this study was to test how well interface information is transferred across the visual and haptic modalities. In the experiment there were three feedback conditions: haptic, visual and haptic plus visual. The experiment consisted of a training session and a test session. First, the 54 participants trained on the experimental task in one feedback condition, and then they carried out a test by means of the same or a different feedback condition. The experimental task was to locate and select a texture in a menu of four textures haptically displayed through a rotary device and visually displayed on a computer monitor. The results showed no significant performance differences in the haptic, visual or haptic plus visual tests when training was haptic. When training was unimodal visual or bimodal haptic and visual a significant weaker performance was found in the haptic test. Here a dominance of vision over touch could be observed; even if haptic information was provided during bimodal training, the visual information seemed to dominate and the participants performed no better on the haptic test than when unimodal visual information had been provided during training.
Godkänd; 2007; 20070514 (ysko)