Vibration is an efficient way of conveying information from a device to its user, and it is increasingly used for wrist or finger-worn devices such as smart rings. Unexpected vibrations or sounds from the environment may disrupt the perception of such information. Although disruptive effects have been systematically explored in vision and audition, they have been less thoroughly examined in the haptic domain. Here we briefly review the relevant literature from HCI and psychology, distilling principles of when distraction is likely. We then investigate these principles through four experiments, examining how the timing and modality of relatively rare or unexpected stimuli (surprise distractors) affect the detection and recognition of vibrotactile target patterns. At short distractor-target delays (<350 ms), both auditory and vibrotactile surprise distractors impaired performance. At a longer delay (1,050 ms), performance was not affected overall, even being improved with repeated exposure to the vibrotactile distractors. We discuss the importance of our findings in the context of HCI and cognitive psychology, and we provide design guidelines for mitigating the effects of distraction on haptic devices.

中文翻译：

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一切都在时机

振动是一种将信息从设备传递给用户的有效方式，并且越来越多地用于手腕或手指佩戴的设备，例如智能戒指。来自环境的意外振动或声音可能会破坏对此类信息的感知。尽管已经在视觉和听觉中系统地探索了破坏性影响，但它们在触觉领域的研究还不够彻底。在这里，我们简要回顾了人机交互和心理学的相关文献，提炼出何时可能分心的原则。然后，我们通过四个实验研究这些原则，检查相对罕见或意外刺激（意外干扰物）的时间和模式如何影响振动触觉目标模式的检测和识别。在短暂的干扰目标延迟（<350 ms）下，听觉和振动触觉意外干扰因素都会损害表现。在较长的延迟（1,050 毫秒）下，性能总体上没有受到影响，即使反复暴露于振动牵引干扰物也会得到改善。我们讨论了我们的发现在 HCI 和认知心理学背景下的重要性，并提供了减轻分心对触觉设备影响的设计指南。