Design of a Fingertip-Mounted Tactile Display with Tangential Skin Displacement Feedback

Application of tangential skin displacement at the fingertip has been shown to be effective in communicating direction and has potential for several applications. We have developed a portable, fingertip-mounted tactile display capable of displacing and stretching the skin of the fingerpad, using a 7 mm hemispherical tactor. In vivo tests of fingerpad skin stiffness were performed to determine the forces required to effectively render stimuli. Other design parameters such as stimulus speed and displacement were derived from our earlier work. The tactile display is capable of rendering \pm 1 mm of displacement at arbitrary orientations within a plane and with rates of approximately 5 mm/s. Compliance and backlash in the device's drive train were characterized using external measurements, and were compensated for in software to reduce the impact on device hysteresis.

[1]  Helena Backlund Wasling,et al.  Tactile directional sensitivity and postural control , 2005, Experimental Brain Research.

[2]  Mark A. Fehlberg,et al.  Active Handrest for precision manipulation and ergonomic support , 2010, 2010 IEEE Haptics Symposium.

[3]  Marc O. Ernst,et al.  An instance of tactile suppression: Active exploration impairs tactile sensitivity for the direction of lateral movement , 2006 .

[4]  D. Keyson,et al.  Directional sensitivity to a tactile point stimulus moving across the fingerpad , 1995, Perception & psychophysics.

[5]  Mark R. Cutkosky,et al.  Comparison of Skin Stretch and Vibrotactile Stimulation for Feedback of Proprioceptive Information , 2008, 2008 Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems.

[6]  Masahiro Ohka,et al.  A Tactile Display Presenting Pressure Distribution and Slippage Force , 2008, 2008 Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems.

[7]  U. Norrsell,et al.  Spatial cues serving the tactile directional sensibility of the human forearm. , 1994, The Journal of physiology.

[8]  Martin Buss,et al.  First evaluation of a novel tactile display exerting shear force via lateral displacement , 2005, TAP.

[9]  J. V. Van Erp,et al.  Presenting directions with a vibrotactile torso display , 2005, Ergonomics.

[10]  Nikolaos G. Tsagarakis,et al.  SLIP AESTHEASIS: a portable 2D slip/skin stretch display for the fingertip , 2005, First Joint Eurohaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. World Haptics Conference.

[11]  F B Horak,et al.  Fingertip touch improves postural stability in patients with peripheral neuropathy. , 2001, Gait & posture.

[12]  Mansour Rahimi,et al.  Sensing Directionality in Tangential Haptic Stimulation , 2009, HCI.

[13]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Exploration of Tactile Contact in a Haptic Display: Effects of Contact Velocity and Transient Vibrations , 2011, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[14]  V. Hayward,et al.  In vivo biomechanics of the fingerpad skin under local tangential traction. , 2007, Journal of biomechanics.

[15]  Fritz B. Prinz,et al.  Shape deposition manufacturing of heterogeneous structures , 1997 .

[16]  Robert J. Webster,et al.  A novel two-dimensional tactile slip display: design, kinematics and perceptual experiments , 2005, TAP.

[17]  W. R. Gould,et al.  Cues Supporting Recognition of the Orientation or Direction of Movement of Tactile Stimuli , 1979 .

[18]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Perception of Direction for Applied Tangential Skin Displacement: Effects of Speed, Displacement, and Repetition , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.