Comparison of kinesthetic and skin deformation feedback for mass rendering

Virtual and augmented reality systems that immerse users in a 3D environment could benefit from haptic (force and/or tactile) feedback to increase realism and task performance. A canonical task that cannot be achieved compellingly without haptic feedback is the grasp and lift of an object with mass. Traditional kinesthetic (force) feedback devices provide realistic physical interactions with virtual objects, but typically require large actuators, making them bulky and encumbering. In contrast, tactile feedback devices can use smaller actuators and may enable freer movement of a user in a virtual world. One form of tactile feedback, skin deformation feedback, has been previously shown to provide effective haptic feedback of force, stiffness, and friction. Here we compare human perception of mass via kinesthetic feedback and skin deformation feedback in a virtual environment. Participants grasp and lift two virtual blocks and attempt to equalize their masses by the method of adjustments. From the accuracy of this equalization, we determined that the Weber Fraction (the just noticeable difference in proportion to the original stimulus value) of virtual mass during a grasp and lift task was 0.11 for kinesthetic force feedback and 0.35 for skin deformation feedback. In addition, participants exhibited differences in exploratory procedures between the two types of feedback.

[1]  R. Johansson,et al.  Control of grip force during restraint of an object held between finger and thumb: responses of cutaneous afferents from the digits , 1996, Experimental Brain Research.

[2]  Kouta Minamizawa,et al.  A Wearable Haptic Display to Present the Gravity Sensation - Preliminary Observations and Device Design , 2007, Second Joint EuroHaptics Conference and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems (WHC'07).

[3]  R. Johansson,et al.  Control of grip force during restraint of an object held between finger and thumb: responses of muscle and joint afferents from the digits , 2004, Experimental Brain Research.

[4]  Mark R. Cutkosky,et al.  Rotational Skin Stretch Feedback: A Wearable Haptic Display for Motion , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

[5]  Thomas B. Sheridan,et al.  Telerobotics , 1989, Autom..

[6]  Hiroo Iwata,et al.  Shape and friction recognition of 3D virtual objects by using 2-DOF indirect haptic interface , 2015, 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[7]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Tactor-Induced Skin Stretch as a Sensory Substitution Method in Teleoperated Palpation , 2015, IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems.

[8]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  M-Width: Stability, noise characterization, and accuracy of rendering virtual mass , 2015, Int. J. Robotics Res..

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

[10]  H. Ross,et al.  Sensorimotor mechanisms in weight discrimination , 1984, Perception & psychophysics.

[11]  K. J. Cole,et al.  Sensory-motor coordination during grasping and manipulative actions , 1992, Current Biology.

[12]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Discrimination thresholds for communicating rotational inertia and torque using differential skin stretch feedback in virtual environments , 2014, 2014 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS).

[13]  Mihoko Niitsuma,et al.  Perception of tactile sensation using vibrotactile glove interface , 2012, 2012 IEEE 3rd International Conference on Cognitive Infocommunications (CogInfoCom).

[14]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory substitution of force and torque using 6-DoF tangential and normal skin deformation feedback , 2015, 2015 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation (ICRA).

[15]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Sensory substitution using 3-degree-of-freedom tangential and normal skin deformation feedback , 2014, 2014 IEEE Haptics Symposium (HAPTICS).

[16]  R. Klatzky,et al.  Haptic classification of common objects: Knowledge-driven exploration , 1990, Cognitive Psychology.

[17]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  Stability of Haptic Rendering: Discretization, Quantization, Time Delay, and Coulomb Effects , 2006, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[18]  Karon E. MacLean,et al.  Haptic Interaction Design for Everyday Interfaces , 2008 .

[19]  Allison M. Okamura,et al.  Effects of position quantization and sampling rate on virtual-wall passivity , 2005, IEEE Transactions on Robotics.

[20]  H. Ross,et al.  Mass estimation and discrimination during brief periods of zero gravity , 1982, Perception & psychophysics.

[21]  Dongjun Lee,et al.  Enlarging just noticeable differences of visual-proprioceptive conflict in VR using haptic feedback , 2015, 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[22]  John Kenneth Salisbury,et al.  A constraint-based god-object method for haptic display , 1995, Proceedings 1995 IEEE/RSJ International Conference on Intelligent Robots and Systems. Human Robot Interaction and Cooperative Robots.

[23]  William R. Provancher,et al.  Fingerpad Skin Stretch Increases the Perception of Virtual Friction , 2009, IEEE Transactions on Haptics.

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

[25]  J. Wheeler,et al.  Investigation of Rotational Skin Stretch for Proprioceptive Feedback With Application to Myoelectric Systems , 2010, IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.

[26]  Antonio Frisoli,et al.  A wearable fingertip haptic device with 3 DoF asymmetric 3-RSR kinematics , 2015, 2015 IEEE World Haptics Conference (WHC).

[27]  François Conti,et al.  CHAI: An Open-Source Library for the Rapid Development of Haptic Scenes , 2005 .

[28]  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.