The symmetric configuration and the sensitivity of ears in addition to the long tradition of earrings as adornment open up the possibility for smart ear-worn devices. Taking advantage of these attributes, past research mostly focused on creating novel unobtrusive sensing input devices and auditory displays placed on the ear. Meanwhile, the tactile sensitivity of the ear has long been overshadowed by its auditory capacity, presenting the opportunity to investigate how ears can be exploited for unobtrusive tactile information transfer. With three studies and a total of 38 participants, we suggest the design of ActivEarring, a ear-worn device capable of imparting information by stimulating six different locations on both ears. We evaluated the performance of ActivEarring in a semi-realistic mobile condition and its practical use for information transfer with spatiotemporal patterns. Finally, we demonstrate that ActivEarring can be incorporated in common jewelry design, and present three applications that illustrate promising usage scenarios.

中文翻译：

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ActivEarring：耳朵上的时空触觉提示

除了作为装饰的耳环的悠久传统之外，对称的配置和耳朵的灵敏度为智能耳戴式设备开辟了可能性。利用这些特性，过去的研究主要集中在创造新颖的、不显眼的传感输入设备和放置在耳朵上的听觉显示器。同时，耳朵的触觉敏感性长期以来一直被其听觉能力所掩盖，这为研究如何利用耳朵进行不显眼的触觉信息传输提供了机会。通过三项研究和总共 38 名参与者，我们建议设计 ActivEarring，这是一种耳戴式设备，能够通过刺激双耳的六个不同位置来传递信息。我们评估了 ActivEarring 在半真实移动条件下的性能及其在具有时空模式的信息传输中的实际用途。最后，我们展示了 ActivEarring 可以融入普通珠宝设计中，并展示了三个应用来说明有前景的使用场景。