Enhancing fingertip haptic sensitivity by cooling skin temperature effect and using stochastic resonance

2023 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 22K19794
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Research (Exploratory)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Review Section: Medium-sized Section 61:Human informatics and related fields
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Endo Takahiro 京都大学, 工学研究科, 准教授 (70432185)
• Project Period (FY): 2022-06-30 – 2024-03-31
• Keywords: 触知覚 / 確率共鳴 / 指先触感覚の高感度化 / ノイズ / 触診

Outline of Final Research Achievements

The current approach to improving fingertip haptic sensation using stochastic resonance, which enhances haptic sensation by applying mechanical noise, has limitations in its improvement. While the haptic sensitivity would improve when sufficiently large noise is applied, fingertip haptic sensitivity decreases when a large noise that humans can perceive is applied to the wrist. Thus, we proposed a novel method to improve the fingertip haptic sensitivity by applying vibrotactile noise to a cooled wrist. Specifically, we confirmed that cooling the wrist skin reduces its sensitivity to vibrotactile stimuli. Thus, using this effect, we could apply a large but imperceptible noise to the wrist. This allowed us to propagate a large noise to the fingertip, improving the tactile sensation of the fingertip via the stochastic resonance effect. Through several experiments, we verified the efficacy of our proposed method.

Free Research Field

ハプティクス

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

本研究は、触覚の感度低下特性を用い、確率共鳴現象の強化を図る新たな試みであった。また温度依存という感度低下効果と、確率共鳴という感度向上効果の組合せによる知覚現象の解明は、世界初の知見を得ることであり、これらが研究成果の学術的意義である。さらに本研究の成果は、ノイズ付与だけでは迫れなかった、熟練手技を持つ技能者と同程度の知覚能力の獲得など、幅広い応用への展開が期待でき、大きな社会的意義を生む研究であると考えられる。