The Information Capacity of the Human Fingertip
Abstract
An order-of-magnitude upper bound is placed on the information channel capacity for vibrotactile stimulation of human fingertips. Results are presented which suggest an order-of-magnitude limit of 100 bit/s. This limit is compared to previously published figures for similar limits in the human ear and eye, showing a progression of 102: 104: 106, respectively.
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The visual system has four orders of magnitude greater bandwidth than haptic perception.
“Investigations of the capacity of the visual system reveal that it has four orders of magnitude greater bandwidth than haptic perception (Kokjer, 1987; Schmidt, 1981)”
From Designing sensory-substitution devices: Principles, pitfalls and potential1 (2016) · cites this paper as Kokjer, 1987
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- Authors
- Kokjer, K.
- Affiliations
- University of Alaska Fairbanks (US)
- Corresponding author
- Kokjer, Kenneth
- Venue
- IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics
- Published
- 1987-01
- Volume
- 17
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 100-102
- ISSN
- 0018-9472 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2093117756
- Cited by
- 61
- References
- 12
- Citations by year
- 2025: 2 · 2024: 2 · 2023: 4 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 2 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2 · 2017: 1 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 2 · 2014: 3 · 2013: 5
- FWCI
- 0.49
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- IEEE Transactions on Systems Man and Cybernetics (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Tactile and Sensory Interactions
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Physical Sciences › Engineering › Aerospace Engineering › Human auditory perception and evaluation
- Keywords
- fingertip, vibrotactile stimulation, upper bounds
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