SGER: Optimizing skin stretch for localized haptic display

要改善人们在多用户计算机辅助的协作活动或培训中的体验，使他们彼此之间的交互以及与他们的虚拟环境的交互几乎逼真，将需要比目前可用的更好的触觉(力和触摸)反馈技术。特别是，当一群用户自由移动而不是坐在桌面显示器前时，几乎没有可用的东西来提供人与人和人与世界的触摸反馈。可以使用紧凑型振动反馈装置，尽管用户在运动中感知高频振动的能力可能会受到影响。在人体皮肤中激活触觉传感器的另一种方法是使用分布式皮肤刺激剂，即皮肤拉伸，但人们对它对身体的影响，或者它是否可以用作身体上的触觉展示知之甚少。PI在这个项目中的目标就是探索这些问题。特别是，他将研究分布式皮肤拉伸和振动反馈的效果，这些反馈是通过轻质、低功率的“手爪”来应用的，这种手爪可以安装/佩戴在人体的不同位置。PI将进行实验，将久坐和快速移动的使用者的皮肤拉伸与振动反馈的效果进行量化，并将对身体康复环境中佩戴的手掌的影响进行初步调查，希望改善患者在受伤或中风康复时经常需要的运动训练练习。这些实验的结果将为如何在虚拟环境和人与人之间的互动中最好地利用皮肤拉伸和振动显示提供第一个指示，并将指导进一步的触觉开发。宽频影响：与视觉和声音相比，触觉反馈是一个不发达的渠道。PI将在该项目中研究的新技术有望在许多不同的领域中彻底改变人机交互和计算机中介的人与人之间的交互，其中尤其是及时的应用，如紧急人员培训演习和地理分布的团队之间的协作努力，以制定紧急程序。

Improving the experiences of people in multi-user computer assisted collaborative activities or training to the extent that their interactions with each other and with their virtual environments are almost lifelike will requires much better haptic (force and touch) feedback technology than is currently available. In particular, little is available to provide human-human and human-world touch feedback when groups of users are moving freely, rather than seated at desktop displays. Compact vibration feedback devices could be used, notwithstanding that the user's ability while in motion to perceive high-frequency vibration is likely to suffer. An alternative method of activating the touch sensors in human skin is to apply distributed cutaneous stimulants, or skin stretch, but little is known about its effects on the body, or if it can be used as a body-mounted haptic display. The PI's goal in this project is to explore such issues. In particular, he will investigate the effects of both distributed skin-stretch and vibration feedback applied by means of light-weight, low-power "tactors" that can be mounted/worn at various locations on a person's body. The PI will conduct experiments to quantify the effects of skin-stretch in comparison to vibration feedback for both sedentary and rapidly moving users, and will conduct preliminary investigations of the effects of body worn tactors in a physical rehabilitation environment, in the hope of improving motion training exercises which patients often require when recovering from injuries or strokes. The results of these experiments will provide a first indication of how best to utilize skin-stretch and vibration displays in virtual environments and in human-human interactions, and will also guide further tactor development.Broader Impacts: In comparison to vision and sound, haptic feedback is an underdeveloped channel. New technologies such as those the PI will investigate in this project promise to revolutionize human-computer interaction and computer-mediated human-human interaction in a host of diverse domains, not the least of which are timely applications such as training exercises for emergency personnel and collaborative efforts among geographically distributed teams to develop emergency procedures.