Development and Applications of High-Density Tactile Sensing Glove

To understand principles of human hand dexterity, investigation of dynamic contact control by the hand is essential. Here, we developed a novel high-density tactile sensing glove lined with flexible printed circuit boards (FPCs) which were embedded with 1-mm-sized pressure sensitive elements at 1052 points per hand. Those FPCs are arranged in such a way that did not interfere with natural hand movements. In order to demonstrate how the glove captures the hand's sensation and action, we conducted two experiments while human subjects wore the glove. First, we investigated the relationship between pressure distribution and external force exerted on a grasped object. The results showed that the external force correlates to the pressure distribution and that the direction of the external force can be roughly estimated from the pressure distribution. Second, we observed object discrimination by a blindfold subject. As a result, the difference of exploratory patterns arises from difference of objects used in the task was successfully observed from the data of the glove.

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