Affiliations: Biomechanics Laboratory, Utsunomiya University Faculty of Engineering, 7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya 321-8585, Japan
Note: [] Corresponding Author: N. Sakai, Biomechanics Laboratory, Utsunomiya University Faculty of Engineering, 7-1-2 Yoto, Utsunomiya 321-8585, Japan. Tel: +81-28-689-6079; Fax: +81-28-689-7059; Email: [email protected]
Abstract: The images of the mechanical responses were analysed when the fingertip was pressed against a plateau plate, and the influence of the contact angle on the loading pressure and the mechanical responses was investigated. As a result, as the contact angle was smaller, the change ratios due to the loading pressure were significantly larger in the contact length, the contact width and the distortion of lateral-view area. These parameters were thought to be useful in clinical medicine as indices for the degrees of mechanical responses of the fingertip. The length of the central axis and the maximum width of the fingertip were inappropriate as the parameters to represent the mechanical responses of the fingertip. The maximum width of the fingertip scarcely changed. This does not reflect the compressibility of the fingertip, and the fingertip as a whole extended along the central axis and in the vertical direction, and the change was not reflected in the maximum width.
