Tactile sensing is a fundamental component of object manipulation and tool handling skills. With robots entering unstructured environments, tactile feedback also becomes an important ability for robot manipulation and use of tools. In this work, we explore how a robot can learn to use tactile sensing in object manipulation tasks. We first address the problem of in-hand object localization and a...

The overall goal of this chapter is to give the reader insights into the human factors issues related to the use of tactile displays. Torso-mounted displays, which are particularly suited for direction and orientation cues, are emphasized. First, perceptual issues relevant to tactile stimulation are discussed. These include issues regarding spatial acuity and absolute localization of tactile cu...

The present study makes two contributions to the literature on tactile feedback. First, it investigates the effect of tactile feedback in isometric rate control devices. The use of tactile feedback in this type of device has not been systematically investigated. An isometric joystick, such as the IBM TrackpointTM in-keyboard pointing device does not perceptibly move and is operated by force. Ca...

Tactile perception is inhibited during movement execution, a phenomenon known as tactile suppression. Here, we investigated whether the type of movement determines whether or not this form of sensory suppression occurs. Participants performed simple reaching or exploratory movements. Tactile discrimination thresholds were calculated for vibratory stimuli delivered to participants' wrists while ...

Somaesthetic, motor and cognitive functions were studied in a man with impaired tactile object-recognition (TOR) in his left hand due to a right parietal convexity meningeoma which had been surgically removed. Primary motor and somatosensory functions were not impaired, and discriminative abilities for various tactile aspects and cognitive skills were preserved. Nevertheless, the patient could ...

Considering tactile sensation when designing products is important because the decision to purchase often depends on how products feel. Numerous psychophysical studies have attempted to identify important factors that describe tactile perceptions. However, the numbers and types of major tactile dimensions reported in previous studies have varied because of differences in materials used across e...

Tactile spatial acuity is enhanced in blindness, according to several studies, but the cause of this enhancement has been controversial. Two competing hypotheses are the tactile experience hypothesis (reliance on the sense of touch drives tactile-acuity enhancement) and the visual deprivation hypothesis (the absence of vision itself drives tactile-acuity enhancement). Here, we performed experim...

UNLABELLED Impaired tactile acuity in people with chronic pain conditions has been suggested to reflect altered cortical representation of the painful body part, and treatments that aim to improve tactile acuity in these conditions have shown clinical benefit. Whether abnormalities in tactile acuity are a consistent feature of chronic pain remains largely unknown. The aim of this review was to ...

OBJECTIVE This article provides an overview of tactile displays. Its goal is to assist human factors practitioners in deciding when and how to employ the sense of touch for the purpose of information representation. The article also identifies important research needs in this area. BACKGROUND First attempts to utilize the sense of touch as a medium for communication date back to the late 1950...

Information obtained from multiple sensory modalities, such as vision and touch, is integrated to yield a holistic percept. As a haptic approach usually involves cross-modal sensory experiences, it is necessary to develop an apparatus that can characterize how a biological system integrates visual-tactile sensory information as well as how a robotic device infers object information emanating fr...