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Creators: School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences

Haptic Discrimination of Object Size via Tactile Sensation vs. Vibratory Sensory Substitution

Description

Humans rely on a complex interworking of visual, tactile and proprioceptive feedback to accomplish even the most simple of daily tasks. These senses work together to provide information about the size, weight, shape, density, and texture of objects being interacted with. While vision is highly relied upon for many tasks, especially those involving accurate reaches, people can typically accomplish common daily skills without constant visual feedback, instead relying on tactile and proprioceptive cues. Amputees using prosthetic hands, however, do not currently have access to such cues, making these tasks impossible. This experiment was designed to test whether vibratory haptic cues could be used in replacement of tactile feedback to signal contact for a size discrimination task. Two experiments were run in which subjects were asked to identify changes in block size between consecutive trials using wither physical or virtual blocks to test the accuracy of size discrimination using tactile and haptic feedback, respectively. Blocks randomly increased or decreased in size in increments of 2 to 12 mm between trials for both experiments. This experiment showed that subjects were significantly better at determining size changes using tactile feedback than vibratory haptic cues. This suggests that, while haptic feedback can technically be used to grasp and discriminate between objects of different sizes, it does not lend the same level of input as tactile cues.

ContributorsOlson, Markey Cierra (Author) / Helms-Tilley, Stephen (Thesis director) / Buneo, Christopher (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Harrington Bioengineering Program (Contributor)

Created2015-05

Exploring the Impact of a Haptic Glove on Immersion

Description

In this experiment, a haptic glove with vibratory motors on the fingertips was tested against the standard HTC Vive controller to see if the additional vibrations provided by the glove increased immersion in common gaming scenarios where haptic feedback is provided. Specifically, two scenarios were developed: an explosion scene containing a small and large explosion and a box interaction scene that allowed the participants to touch the box virtually with their hand. At the start of this project, it was hypothesized that the haptic glove would have a significant positive impact in at least one of these scenarios. Nine participants took place in the study and immersion was measured through a post-experiment questionnaire. Statistical analysis on the results showed that the haptic glove did have a significant impact on immersion in the box interaction scene, but not in the explosion scene. In the end, I conclude that since this haptic glove does not significantly increase immersion across all scenarios when compared to the standard Vive controller, it should not be used at a replacement in its current state.

ContributorsGriffieth, Alan P (Author) / McDaniel, Troy (Thesis director) / Selgrad, Justin (Committee member) / Computing and Informatics Program (Contributor) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Economics Program in CLAS (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2021-05

HapBack - Providing Spatial Awareness at a Distance Using Haptic Stimulation

Description

This paper presents a study done to gain knowledge on the communication of an object’s relative 3-dimensional position in relation to individuals who are visually impaired and blind. The HapBack, a continuation of the HaptWrap V1.0 (Duarte et al., 2018), focused on the perception of objects and their distances in 3-dimensional space using haptic communication. The HapBack is a device that consists of two elastic bands wrapped horizontally secured around the user’s torso and two backpack straps secured along the user’s back. The backpack straps are embedded with 10 vibrotactile motors evenly positioned along the spine. This device is designed to provide a wearable interface for blind and visually impaired individuals in order to understand how the position of objects in 3-dimensional space are perceived through haptic communication. We were able to analyze the accuracy of the HapBack device through three vectors (1) Two different modes of vibration – absolute and relative (2) the location of the vibrotactile motors when in absolute mode (3) and the location of the vibrotactile motors when in relative mode. The results provided support that the HapBack provided vibrotactile patterns that were intuitively mapped to distances represented in the study. We were able to gain a better understanding on how distance can be perceived through haptic communication in individuals who are blind through analyzing the intuitiveness of the vibro-tactile patterns and the accuracy of the user’s responses.

ContributorsLow, Allison Xin Ming (Author) / McDaniel, Troy (Thesis director) / Duarte, Bryan (Committee member) / School of Mathematical and Statistical Sciences (Contributor) / Computer Science and Engineering Program (Contributor, Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)

Created2019-12