Haptic perception mechanism of softness

Issue title: Selected Papers from the 15th International Symposium on Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics (ISEM 2011)

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Tsuchimi, Daisuke^{a; *} | Okuyama, Takeshi^b | Tanaka, Mami^a

Affiliations: [a] Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan | [b] Graduate School of Engineering, Tohoku University, Sendai, Japan

Correspondence: [*] Corresponding author: Daisuke Tsuchimi, Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, Tohoku University, Aoba 6-6-04, Aramaki, Aoba-ku, Sendai 980-8579, Japan. Tel.: +81 22 795 5879; Fax: +81 22 795 5879; E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: A palpation is convenient and it is a useful method to detect a cancer and to evaluate softness of skin. However, the palpation is skillful method, and the mental/physical conditions of the experts affect the result of the palpation easily. The result of palpation is subjective and it is hard to share the result with the other people. Therefore, the development of the sensor that can measure the softness of the body is demanded. In this paper, a relationship between physical properties of measured objects and the softness that human feel are investigated for a development of a tactile sensor system. At first, the relationship between tactile softness and stiffness of the measured objects is investigated. As a result, tactile softness decreases with the increase of stiffness of the objects. Next, the relationship between tactile softness and size of contact area of human finger are investigated. These results lead to the conclusion that there is a possibility that tactile softness of the objects are not only related to the contact force or displacement of a finger and the objects but also to the contact area of the finger and the measured objects.

Keywords: Tactile, stiffness, softness

DOI: 10.3233/JAE-2012-1576

Journal: International Journal of Applied Electromagnetics and Mechanics, vol. 39, no. 1-4, pp. 1041-1046, 2012