A surface meso-structure measurement and tactile device input vibration signal synthesis techniques are proposed. To measure the surface meso-structure, some photos are taken using a fixed camera with changing lighting incidence direction. A surface normal image is obtained from these photos. Then vibration signal as tactile device input signal is synthesized. Adding friction sound, the tactile...

This paper presents developments in the technology underlying the cyclotactor, a finger-based tactile I/O device for musical interaction. These include significant improvements both in the basic characteristics of tactile interaction and in the related (vibro)tactile sample rates, latencies, and timing precision. After presenting the new prototype's tactile output force landscape, some of the n...

The evolution of sensory systems has let mammals develop complicated tactile end organs to enable sophisticated sensory tasks, including social interaction, environmental exploration, and tactile discrimination. The Merkel disc, a main type of tactile end organ consisting of Merkel cells (MCs) and Aβ-afferent endings, are highly abundant in fingertips, touch domes, and whisker hair follicles of...

We investigated why self-produced tactile stimulation is perceived as less intense than the same stimulus produced externally. A tactile stimulus on the palm of the right hand was either externally produced, by a robot or self-produced by the subject. In the conditions in which the tactile stimulus was self-produced, subjects moved the arm of a robot with their left hand to produce the tactile ...

The potential of large tactile arrays to improve robot perception for safe operation in human-dominated environments and of high-resolution tactile arrays to enable humanlevel dexterous manipulation is well accepted. However, the increase in the number of tactile sensing elements introduces challenges including wiring complexity, power consumption, and data processing. To help address these cha...

| This is the second part of a two-part paper that develops a method for the automatic conversion of images from visual to tactile form. In Part I, a variety of topics were reviewed including issues in human factors, access technology for tactile graphics production, and image processing. In this part, the material presented in the rst part is used to motivate, develop and support the methods u...

Many studies have found that visual cortical areas are active during tactile perception. Here we used positron emission tomographic (PET) scanning in normally sighted humans to show that extrastriate cortical regions are recruited in a task-specific manner during perceptual processing of tactile stimuli varying in two dimensions. Mental rotation of tactile Forms activated a focus around the ant...

Human skin is innervated with different tactile afferents, which are found at varying densities over the body. We investigate how the relationships between tactile pleasantness, sensitivity and discrimination differ across the skin. Tactile pleasantness was assessed by stroking a soft brush over the skin, using five velocities (0.3, 1, 3, 10, 30 cm s(-1)), known to differentiate hedonic touch, ...

This paper presents an analysis result of grasp-move-and-twist motions of robotic hands equipped with optical three-axis tactile sensor to evaluate performance of a new control algorithm based on tactile slippage sensation. The optical three-axis tactile sensor is capable of defining normal and shear forces simultaneously. The proposed algorithm consists of robot arm and hand controls based on ...