A Wearable Skin-Stretching Tactile Interface for Human-Robot and Human-Human Communication
A Wearable Skin-Stretching Tactile Interface for Human-Robot and Human-Human Communication
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DOI：
10.1109/lra.2019.2896933
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发表时间：
2019-04-01
影响因子：
5.2
通讯作者：
Rossiter, Jonathan
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Haynes, Alice;Simons, Melanie F.;Rossiter, Jonathan
目前，大多数可穿戴机器人触觉反馈设备依靠振动将感官信息传递给用户。虽然这可能非常有效，但振动作为一种物理刺激的方式是有限的，在自然界中并不常见。在许多情况下，对于人机交互和人与人之间的互动，需要一种更自然、更有情感的触觉交互来提供舒适和多样化的刺激。在这封信中，我们展示了超皮肤可穿戴电共情刺激器（scwee），这是一种可以轻轻拉伸和挤压皮肤表面的触觉设备。我们的假设是，这个设备可以创造一种愉快的、不引人注目的感觉，可以用来调解社会互动或传递微妙的警报。我们描述了scweeks的设计，这是一种轻量级的3d打印半柔性结构，可以在两点上附着在皮肤上，并通过两个形状记忆合金线圈驱动器来驱动。我们通过一系列人类互动实验来评估scwee：刺激强度和愉悦度，收缩和伸展，以及非破坏性通知的传递。定量和定性的结果表明，scweeks可以产生愉悦的感觉，在人机交互中传递有用的信息，并且在用户从事任务时提供情感刺激，比传统的振动触觉刺激破坏性更小。
Currently, the majority of wearable robotic haptic feedback devices rely on vibrations for relaying sensory information to the user. While this can be very effective, vibration as a physical stimulation is limited in modality and is uncommon in the natural world. In many cases, for human-robot and human-human interaction, a more natural, affective tactile interaction is needed to provide comfortable and varied stimuli. In this letter, we present the super-cutaneous wearable electrical empathic stimulator (SCWEES), a tactile device that gently stretches and squeezes the surface of the skin. Our hypothesis is that this device can create a pleasant, unobtrusive sensation that can be used to mediate social interactions or to deliver subtle alerts. We describe the design of the SCWEES, a lightweight 3D-printed semi-flexible structure that attaches to the skin at two points and actuates via two shape-memory alloy coil actuators. We evaluate the SCWEES through a range of human interaction experiments: stimulation strength and pleasantness, contraction and extension, and the conveyance of non-disruptive notifications. Quantitative and qualitative results show that the SCWEES generates a pleasant sensation, can convey useful information in human-machine interactions, and delivers affective stimulation that is less disruptive than conventional vibratory tactile stimulation when the user is engaged in a task.