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Two sets of recordings of the vibration produced by plucking the fifth and the second string of an acoustic guitar were acquired using an accelerometer secured to the neck of the instrument. These vibrations were reproduced using a recoil-type vibrating actuator attached at the neck of the guitar. In one of the sets, spectral features of the original recordings were altered. We performed a preliminary study involving nine participants, blindfolded and deafened using earplugs and white noise. They were asked to discriminate, by holding the neck of the instrument with their left hand, between “fake” (actuator-produced) or real vibrations, produced by the experimenter plucking either string two or five. Our aim was to assess if any of the spectral features altered in the second set of recordings increased the recognition rate of actuator-produced vibrations as being “fake”. These features, if present, would then be likely to carry crucial information and should be therefore modelled with extreme care in the simulation of the haptic behaviour of the instrument. Results show that, at least for string five, we identified one feature (a spectral peak at 548Hz) which, if altered, made the recognition rate as “fake” rise, statistically significantly, from 55% to 89%.

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