EV-Pen: Leveraging Electrovibration Haptic Feedback in Pen Interaction

This paper presents an Electrovibration Pen (EV-Pen) which incorporates electrovibration technology into pen interactions. The EV-Pen has two unique characteristics: precise interaction and pen-on-paper feeling. We conducted four experiments for evaluating the EV-Pen. Experiment 1 was to determine preliminary characteristics of the EV-Pen. Experiments 2 and 3 were to evaluate precise interaction task performance through a steering task and a tracing task. We compared user performance between the EV-Pen, a mechanical-vibration pen, a normal pen without feedback and electrovibration based finger interaction. Experimental results indicated that the EV-Pen outperformed the other devices in precise task interactions. Experiment 4 tested pen-on-paper feeling in drawing and handwriting tasks, and it was observed that the EVPen significantly enhances user experience. Based on the experimental results, we discuss implications and potential benefits for the design of the EV-Pen.