Interfaces and methods of digital composition and editing of textures for rendering on tactile surfaces

1. A method for representing a tactile texture function and implementing a tactile texture on a tactile surface comprising the steps of:

configuring a spectral magnitude function representing the magnitude of lateral force at a set of wavelengths wherein the magnitude at each wavelength is associated with a certain probability distribution;

implementing an algorithm that computes a tactile texture function composed as the sum of a set of functions, wherein each function is the product of: a window function each having specific locations on a tactile surface and the spectral magnitude function drawn from the probability distribution; and

implementing on the tactile surface a lateral force defined by the computed texture function.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein a representation of the spectral magnitude function is graphically displayed as a frequency spectrum, further comprising:

a set of control points being movable in the y-axis to control the magnitude of the spectral magnitude function across a frequency spectrum; and

said algorithm operating to add, multiply or convolve the frequency spectrum specified by said control points with white noise to generate the spectral magnitude function.

3. The method of claim 2 , wherein said frequency spectrum represents spatial or temporal frequency.

4. The method of claim 2 , wherein said control points are movable with respect to frequency and magnitude.

5. The method of claim 2 , wherein the algorithm multiplies said frequency spectrum by Gaussian noise having a Gaussian distribution or other similar noise signal.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein a representation of the spectral magnitude function is displayed as a series of fundamental periodic waves and their harmonics, further comprising:

said control points being movable to define a magnitude of each wave and harmonic; and

said algorithm operating to sum the waves and harmonics specified by said control points and generate the spectral magnitude function.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein said periodic waves and harmonics exist in a spatial domain or temporal domain.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein said representation of the spectral magnitude function is a combination of affective adjective pairs, further comprising:

said control points being associated with affective adjective pairs and each control point being movable as a slider acting to control the relative strength of one of the respective affective adjectives;

said algorithm using a collection of perception data to create spectral magnitude functions representative of each affective adjective; and

a further algorithm that adds, multiplies or convolves the spectral magnitude functions to create a combinatory spectral magnitude function.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the windows function further comprises of control points consisting of blocks of texture functions that can be moved and connected to form a complex combined texture function.

10. The method of claim 9 , wherein said blocks represent spectral magnitude functions created by the previously described methods.

11. A method for representing and implementing a tactile texture on a tactile surface comprising the steps of:

receiving a pre-composed texture data

configuring a spectral magnitude function of the pre-composed texture data representing the magnitude of lateral force at a set of wavelengths wherein the magnitude at each wavelength is associated with a certain probability distribution;

implementing an algorithm that computes a texture function composed as the sum of a set of functions, wherein each function is the product of: a window function each having specific locations on a touch surface and the spectral magnitude function drawn from the probability distribution; and

rendering to the tactile surface a lateral force defined by the computed texture function.