Development and application of haptic transfer method based on body reconstruction

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 20K20627
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Pioneering)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 61:Human informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: The University of Electro-Communications
• Principal Investigator: KAJIMOTO Hiroyuki 電気通信大学, 大学院情報理工学研究科, 教授 (80361541)
• Project Period (FY): 2020-07-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 触覚 / 皮膚感覚 / バーチャルリアリティ / ヒューマンインタフェース

Outline of Final Research Achievements

This research attempted to solve the problem of size, which is an intrinsic issue of tactile presentation to the fingertips, by presenting the tactile sensation felt by touching the fingertips to body parts other than the fingertips, called "tactile transfer”. In the development of the devices, we improved the method of presenting tactile sensation to the forehead and forearms, and also developed a new method of presenting temperature sensation to the forehead by electrical stimulation, which had not been known before. We also discovered a new phenomenon in which force sensation is generated by skin sensation presentation in an electrotactile display. Furthermore, through evaluation experiments using VR and teleoperation environments, we verified that subjective operatability that should originally be felt at the fingertips are not impaired when presented on the forehead or back.

Free Research Field

バーチャルリアリティ

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は従来の触覚提示研究が暗黙の了解としてきた「手による操作の触覚フィードバックは手に行われる」という前提を見直し、現在の頭部搭載型ディスプレイに無理なく組み込める形で触覚提示を行った際に、少なくとも主観的な操作感が損なわれないことを示した点で、今後のバーチャルリアリティにおける触覚の扱い方を問い直すという社会的意義がある。また新たに発見された複数の触覚提示手法、例えば電気刺激によって額に冷覚を生じうるという知見や振動提示によって圧覚を生じうるという知見は、今後学術的により深く探求すべき課題を見出したものと言える。