Rendering and subjective evaluation of real vs. synthetic vibrotactile cues on a digital piano keyboard

The perceived properties of a digital piano keyboard were studied in two experiments involving different types of vibrotactile cues in connection with sonic feedback. The first experiment implemented a free playing task in which subjects had to rate the perceived quality of the instrument according to five attributes: Dynamic control, Richness, Engagement, Naturalness, and General preference. The second experiment measured performance in timing and dynamic control in a scale playing task. While the vibrating condition was preferred over the standard non-vibrating setup in terms of perceived quality, no significant differences were observed in timing and dynamics accuracy. Overall, these results must be considered preliminary to an extension of the experiment involving repeated measurements with more subjects.