Effect of skin-transmitted vibration enhancement on vibrotactile perception

Vibration on skin elicited by the mechanical interaction of touch between the skin and an object propagates to skin far from the point of contact. This paper investigates the effect of skin-transmitted vibration on vibrotactile perception. To enhance the transmission of high-frequency vibration on the skin, stiff tape was attached to the skin so that the tape covered the bottom surface of the index finger from the periphery of the distal interphalangeal joint to the metacarpophalangeal joint. Two psychophysical experiments with high-frequency vibrotactile stimuli of 250 Hz were conducted. In the psychophysical experiments, discrimination and detection thresholds were estimated and compared between conditions of the presence or the absence of the tape (normal bare finger). A method of limits was applied for the detection threshold estimation, and the discrimination task using a reference stimulus and six test stimuli with different amplitudes was applied for the discrimination threshold estimation. The stimulation was given to bare fingertips of participants. Result showed that the detection threshold was enhanced by attaching the tape, and the discrimination threshold enhancement by attaching the tape was confirmed for participants who have relatively large discrimination threshold under normal bare finger. Then, skin-transmitted vibration was measured with an accelerometer with the psychophysical experiments. Result showed that the skin-transmitted vibration when the tape was attached to the skin was larger than that when normal bare skin. There is a correlation between the increase in skin-transmitted vibration and the enhancement of the discrimination threshold.

[1]  K. Fujita,et al.  A New Softness Display Interface by Dynamic Fingertip Contact Area Control by Dynamic Fingertip Cont , 2001 .

[2]  M. Hollins,et al.  Pacinian representations of fine surface texture , 2005, Perception & psychophysics.

[3]  J. Craig.  Difference threshold for intensity of tactile stimuli , 1972 .

[4]  M. M. Taylor,et al.  Fingertip force, surface geometry, and the perception of roughness by active touch , 1972 .

[5]  J. Craig,et al.  Amplitude and period discrimination of haptic stimuli. , 1998, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[6]  Poika Isokoski,et al.  Haptics: Perception, Devices, Mobility, and Communication , 2012, Lecture Notes in Computer Science.

[7]  Benoit P. Delhaye,et al.  Texture-induced vibrations in the forearm during tactile exploration , 2012, Front. Behav. Neurosci..

[8]  '. B.Vallbo.  Properties of cutaneous mechanoreceptors in the human hand-related to touch sensation , 1999 .

[9]  A L Dellon,et al.  The Relationships between Skin Hardness, Pressure Perception and two-Point Discrimination in the Fingertip , 1995, Journal of hand surgery.

[10]  R. Lundström.  Local vibrations--mechanical impedance of the human hand's glabrous skin. , 1984, Journal of biomechanics.

[11]  Kazumi Kobayashi,et al.  Relationship between the Structure of Human Finger Tissue and the Location of Tactile Receptors , 1998 .

[12]  Makoto Kaneko,et al.  Improvement of touch sensitivity by pressing , 2008, 2008 30th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society.

[13]  C. Spence,et al.  Audiotactile interactions in roughness perception , 2002, Experimental Brain Research.

[14]  James C. Craig,et al.  Vibrotactile difference thresholds for intensity and the effect of a masking stimulus , 1974 .

[15]  S. Bolanowski,et al.  The frequency selectivity of information-processing channels in the tactile sensory system , 2001, Somatosensory & motor research.

[16]  Balasundar I Raju,et al.  3-D finite-element models of human and monkey fingertips to investigate the mechanics of tactile sense. , 2003, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[17]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory augmentation of stiffness using fingerpad skin stretch , 2013, 2013 World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[18]  Hiromi Mochiyama,et al.  Enhancing haptic detection of surface undulation , 2005, TAP.

[19]  Yoshihiro Tanaka,et al.  Finger-Mounted Skin Vibration Sensor for Active Touch , 2012, EuroHaptics.

[20]  S J Bensmaïa,et al.  Complex tactile waveform discrimination. , 2000, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[21]  M. Alexander,et al.  Principles of Neural Science , 1981 .

[22]  Astrid M. L. Kappers,et al.  The Shape-Weight Illusion , 2010, EuroHaptics.

[23]  G. Debrégeas,et al.  The Role of Fingerprints in the Coding of Tactile Information Probed with a Biomimetic Sensor , 2009, Science.

[24]  KikuuweRyo,et al.  Enhancing haptic detection of surface undulation , 2005 .

[25]  M. Srinivasan,et al.  An investigation of the mechanics of tactile sense using two-dimensional models of the primate fingertip. , 1996, Journal of biomechanical engineering.

[26]  R. T. Verrillo,et al.  Effect of Contactor Area on the Vibrotactile Threshold , 1963 .

[27]  J. Thonnard,et al.  Tactile roughness discrimination of the finger pad relies primarily on vibration sensitive afferents not necessarily located in the hand , 2012, Behavioural Brain Research.

[28]  Peter Grigg,et al.  Noise-mediated enhancements and decrements in human tactile sensation , 1997 .

[29]  Makoto Kaneko,et al.  Frequency response dependence to vibration sensitivity by pressing , 2009, 2008 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics.

[30]  K. Horch,et al.  Coding of vibrotactile stimulus frequency by Pacinian corpuscle afferents. , 1991, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[31]  H. Tan,et al.  Frequency and amplitude discrimination along the kinestheticcutaneous continuum in the presence of masking stimuli. , 2006, The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America.

[32]  N. Cauna.  Nature and functions of the papillary ridges of the digital skin , 1954, The Anatomical record.