The Touch Thimble: Providing Fingertip Contact Feedback During Point-Force Haptic Interaction

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Lab Papers (GRASP)
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force feedback
haptic interfaces
springs (mechanical)
Touch Thimble
contact forces
cutaneous sensation
fingertip contact feedback
force feedback
haptic interfaces
passive springs
point-force haptic interaction
virtual environments
virtual surfaces
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Ferguson, David
Kutzer, Michael
Moses, Matthew
Okamura, Allison M
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Abstract

Touching a real object with your fingertip provides simultaneous tactile and force feedback, yet most haptic interfaces for virtual environments can convey only one of these two essential modalities. To address this opportunity, we designed, prototyped, and evaluated the Touch Thimble, a new fingertip device that provides the user with the cutaneous sensation of making and breaking contact with virtual surfaces. Designed to attach to the endpoint of an impedance-type haptic interface like a SensAble Phantom, the Touch Thimble includes a slightly oversize cup that is suspended around the fingertip by passive springs. When the haptic interface applies contact forces from the virtual environment, the springs deflect to allow contact between the user's fingertip and the inner surface of the cup. We evaluated a prototype Touch Thimble against a standard thimble in a formal user study and found that it did not improve nor degrade subjects' ability to recognize smoothly curving surfaces. Although four of the eight subjects preferred it to the standard interface, overall the Touch Thimble made subjects slightly slower at recognizing the presented shapes. Detailed subject comments point out strengths and weaknesses of the current design and suggest avenues for future development of the device.

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2008-03-14
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Lab Papers (GRASP)
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2023-05-17T03:08:29.000
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Copyright 2008 IEEE. Reprinted from: Kuchenbecker, K.J.; Ferguson, D.; Kutzer, M.; Moses, M.; Okamura, A.M., "The Touch Thimble: Providing Fingertip Contact Feedback During Point-Force Haptic Interaction," Haptic interfaces for virtual environment and teleoperator systems, 2008. haptics 2008. symposium on , vol., no., pp.239-246, 13-14 March 2008 URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=4479950&isnumber=4479895 This material is posted here with permission of the IEEE. Such permission of the IEEE does not in any way imply IEEE endorsement of any of the University of Pennsylvania's products or services. Internal or personal use of this material is permitted. However, permission to reprint/republish this material for advertising or promotional purposes or for creating new collective works for resale or redistribution must be obtained from the IEEE by writing to pubs-permissions@ieee.org. By choosing to view this document, you agree to all provisions of the copyright laws protecting it.
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