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, Rich- ness, 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 accu- racy. Overall, these results must be considered preliminary to an extension of the experiment involving repeated mea- surements with more subjects.