EAGER: Preliminary Investigation of Virtual Tactual Stereognosis

想象一下，你把手伸进口袋，在一堆硬币、钞票和钥匙中找到并抓住汽车的钥匙扣，然后找到解锁按钮（不是上锁按钮，也不是后备箱释放按钮，尤其不是紧急按钮）并按下它。这就是触觉立体识别（TS）的一个例子，人们能够仅凭触觉识别熟悉的物品。 它是平凡的和平淡无奇的。 然而，还没有开发出可编程触觉接口，允许人们使用所谓的虚拟触觉立体感（VTS）来识别虚拟物体。 创建这样一个接口是PI的长期目标。 VTS长期以来一直遥不可及，因为它依赖于主动触摸、多指交互和裸露的指尖，这些都是现有显示技术难以实现的。 PI最近的研究导致了一类新的原型设备（xPaD），它解决了这些限制中的每一个。 这些装置使用摩擦调制来控制指尖和平板之间的力。 基本的TPaD（触觉图案显示）可以创建虚拟纹理、虚拟凹凸和孔洞等效果。 更先进的版本，如ShiverPad和SwirlPad同步面内振动的摩擦水平，以产生积极的推动力的指尖。 使用这些设备可以生成许多额外的效果，包括可以用指尖跟踪的虚拟边缘。 因此，xPaD器械似乎非常适合VTS。 它们是主动式触摸设备，可以使用裸露的指尖（换句话说，xPaD是固定的，手指可以在上面滑动）。此外，它们非常紧凑，可能使多个面板能够排列在物体的表面上，以支持多指接口。 在本研究中，PI将开始探索多xPaD界面，方法是在由两个相对的ShiverPad组成的界面上进行实验，受试者使用捏握（即食指在一个ShiverPaD上，拇指在另一个ShiverPaD上），以展示“绑定”，即手指和拇指感知到的感知融合成一个集成的对象表示。由于许多原因，虚拟触觉立体感是一个重要的目标。 图形显示器已经成为从起居室到办公室，到汽车，到人可能在的任何地方的场所中的重要界面形式。 然而，随着图形显示变得越来越普遍，自然触摸交互似乎变得越来越过时。 VTS旨在实现相反的目标，使未来的界面具有复杂的触觉能力，可以参与手和大脑中的感知和感觉机制。 想象一下，一个医生能够同时查看和触摸身体内的组织，一个怀孕的母亲能够抚摸她未出生的孩子的超声图像，一个自闭症儿童能够在建筑任务中与动画角色合作，或者一个司机能够伸出手，找到并操作触摸屏控制，而不会让他/她的眼睛离开道路。 VTS将成为盲人新型电子显示器的推动者。 这将是一个强大的新工具，可以扩展我们对自然发生的触觉感知的基本知识。

Imagine reaching into your pocket, locating and grasping your car;'s key fob amongst a clutter of coins, bills and keys, then finding the unlock button (not the lock button, not the trunk release, especially not the panic button) and pressing it. This is an example of Tactual Stereognosis (TS), the ability of people to identify familiar items using touch alone. It is commonplace and uneventful. Yet no programmable haptic interface has ever been developed that would allow people to identify virtual objects using what might be termed Virtual Tactual Stereognosis (VTS). Creating such an interface is a long-range goal of the PIs. VTS has long been out of reach because it depends on active touch, multi-finger interaction, and bare fingertips, which are all difficult to achieve with existing display technology. The PIs' recent research has led to a new class of prototype devices (xPaDs), which address each of these limitations. These devices use friction modulation to control forces between the fingertip and a flat plate. The basic TPaD (Tactile Pattern Display) can create effects such as virtual textures, virtual bumps and holes, and more. More advanced versions such as the ShiverPad and SwirlPad synchronize in-plane vibrations to friction levels in order to generate active pushing forces on the fingertip. It is possible to generate many additional effects with these devices, including virtual edges that can be traced with the fingertip. The xPaD devices thus appear to be well suited to VTS. They are active touch devices that work with bare fingertips (in other words, the xPaD is fixed and the finger slides over it). Moreover, they are very compact, potentially enabling multiple panels to be arrayed over the surface of an object in order to support a multi-finger interface. In this study the PIs will begin exploration of a multi-xPaD interface, by performing experiments on an interface consisting of two opposing ShiverPads with subjects employing a pinch grip (that is, index finger on one ShiverPaD, and thumb on the other), in order to demonstrate "binding," the perceptual fusion of the finger and thumb percepts into an integrated object representation.Broader Impacts: Virtual Tactual Stereognosis is an important goal for many reasons. Graphical displays have become an important form of interface in venues ranging from the living room, to the office, to the car, to any place that a person may be. Yet as graphical displays grow more prevalent, natural touch interactions seemingly grow more obsolete. VTS aims to achieve the opposite, to empower future interfaces with sophisticated tactual capabilities that engage perceptual as well as sensory mechanisms in the hand and brain. Imagine a doctor able to simultaneously look at and palpate tissue within the body, a pregnant mother able to caress the ultrasound image of her unborn child, an autistic child able to cooperate with an animated character in a construction task, or a driver able to reach out, find and operate touch screen controls without taking his/her eyes off the road. VTS would be an enabler for new types of electronic displays for the blind. And it would be a powerful new tool to extend our basic knowledge of haptic perception as it occurs naturally.