FIG. 8D illustrates waveforms for generating the sensation of a motion from a patch of skin with the cutaneous actuator 802A to another path of skin with the cutaneous actuator 802B. By separating the on-set time of the two cutaneous actuators 802A, 802B by temporal distance of tp, a sensation of an object moving from one cutaneous actuator to the other cutaneous actuators through the body can be created. In one embodiment, the temporal distance tp is set according to the following equation:
tp=a×d+b??(1)
where a and b are constants and d is the duration of the vibrations. The frequency of the vibrations may be 20 to 300 Hz, the amplitude of the vibration may be 10 to 35 dB and the duration of vibrations may be between 20 milliseconds and 5 seconds.
FIG. 8E illustrates waveforms for generating the sensation of a virtual actuator between the cutaneous actuators 802A, 802B, according to one embodiment. This is a special case of FIG. 8D where tp is set to 0. When the two cutaneous actuators 802A, 802B are activated simultaneously, a sensation of vibrations occurring at a point between the two cutaneous actuators 802A, 802B are created. By controlling the amplitude of the vibrations, the point of virtual actuator may be moved closer to either of the two cutaneous actuators 802A, 802B.
