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A psychophysical investigation on vibrotactile sensing for transradial prosthesis users

A psychophysical investigation on vibrotactile sensing for transradial prosthesis users
A psychophysical investigation on vibrotactile sensing for transradial prosthesis users

The absence of tactile sensory feedback in transradial prosthetic hands is one of the major contributing factors for these devices to be rejected by users. This paper reports human psychophysical response to vibrotactile sensations in discriminating surface textures, as a possible non-invasive method to supplement sensory feedback for prosthetic hand users. The vibrotactile sensations were supplied by a specially fabricated actuator that vibrates according to signals obtained by a prosthetic finger when sliding across textured surfaces. Participants were provided with four different types of vibration patterns, randomly repeated for five times and were required to state which surface textures that the vibration patterns represent. A Chi-square test statistical procedure was designed to evaluate the relationships between these two categorical variables. The investigation which comprises of 300 samples has shown a statistically significant relationship between the vibration patterns and the surface textures (p < 0.001). The participants were able to discriminate surface textures and associate them to the vibration patterns provided by the vibrotactile actuator accordingly. The outcome of this work has provided optimistic possibility for implementation of painless, non-invasive sensory feedback that will undoubtedly boost the users’ sense of embodiment and encourage them to fully utilize a well-designed prosthetic device.

index terms—embodiment, non-invasive, prosthetic, sensory feedback, transradial, vibrotactile
1-14
Mohamad Hanif, Noor Hazrin Hany
bac9233d-8e9f-4b10-8abb-28ab8ffcd948
Chappell, P.H.
2d2ec52b-e5d0-4c36-ac20-0a86589a880e
White, N.M.
c7be4c26-e419-4e5c-9420-09fc02e2ac9c
Cranny, A.W.
2ebc2ccb-7d3e-4a6a-91ac-9f089741939e
Mohamad Hanif, Noor Hazrin Hany
bac9233d-8e9f-4b10-8abb-28ab8ffcd948
Chappell, P.H.
2d2ec52b-e5d0-4c36-ac20-0a86589a880e
White, N.M.
c7be4c26-e419-4e5c-9420-09fc02e2ac9c
Cranny, A.W.
2ebc2ccb-7d3e-4a6a-91ac-9f089741939e

Mohamad Hanif, Noor Hazrin Hany, Chappell, P.H., White, N.M. and Cranny, A.W. (2018) A psychophysical investigation on vibrotactile sensing for transradial prosthesis users. Cogent Engineering, 5 (1), 1-14. (doi:10.1080/23311916.2018.1539943).

Record type: Article

Abstract

The absence of tactile sensory feedback in transradial prosthetic hands is one of the major contributing factors for these devices to be rejected by users. This paper reports human psychophysical response to vibrotactile sensations in discriminating surface textures, as a possible non-invasive method to supplement sensory feedback for prosthetic hand users. The vibrotactile sensations were supplied by a specially fabricated actuator that vibrates according to signals obtained by a prosthetic finger when sliding across textured surfaces. Participants were provided with four different types of vibration patterns, randomly repeated for five times and were required to state which surface textures that the vibration patterns represent. A Chi-square test statistical procedure was designed to evaluate the relationships between these two categorical variables. The investigation which comprises of 300 samples has shown a statistically significant relationship between the vibration patterns and the surface textures (p < 0.001). The participants were able to discriminate surface textures and associate them to the vibration patterns provided by the vibrotactile actuator accordingly. The outcome of this work has provided optimistic possibility for implementation of painless, non-invasive sensory feedback that will undoubtedly boost the users’ sense of embodiment and encourage them to fully utilize a well-designed prosthetic device.

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More information

Accepted/In Press date: 16 October 2018
e-pub ahead of print date: 26 October 2018
Keywords: index terms—embodiment, non-invasive, prosthetic, sensory feedback, transradial, vibrotactile

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 426452
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/426452
PURE UUID: c2b90866-ff7a-4acb-b79a-25ec55f2c59c
ORCID for N.M. White: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-1532-6452

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 28 Nov 2018 17:30
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 02:37

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Contributors

Author: Noor Hazrin Hany Mohamad Hanif
Author: P.H. Chappell
Author: N.M. White ORCID iD
Author: A.W. Cranny

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