Can Haptic Actuator Be Used for Biofeedback Applications in Swimming?

Wearable devices have become indispensable tools in everyday life and sports, providing users with information and feedback using various modalities, built-in sensors and algorithms. Biomechanical systems consist of four components: users, sensors, actuators, and processing devices. In this study, the focus is on the actuators. Biomechanical feedback systems and applications can provide information to the user through different modalities, such as visual, auditory, or haptic. We have developed a feedback device that uses haptic actuators and can be used in underwater environments. Our exploratory study has shown that athletes can perceive haptic actuators and understand simple commands even when they are underwater. In this continuation of the study, we focus on the swimmers’ ability to not only sense the actuators, but also to understand the information and translate it into a change in movement. 51 young swimmers tested this device in our experiments. Results show that the information from the haptic actuators can be perceived during swimming and that users can follow the commands from the haptic feedback by changing their motion. In this study, this ability was demonstrated by changing the swimming technique.