HAPTIC PERCEPTION OF MULTIDIMENSIONAL PATTERNS

这项提议的第一个目标是开发一种触觉刺激器， 为所有五个手指和手掌提供运动和触觉刺激。 使用这个设备，我们希望达到长远的目标：1)了解 手的触觉，包括物体知觉和运动 和振动模式感知；以及2)将这些知识付诸实践 用于开发有效的沟通辅助工具，适用于严重失聪和 又聋又瞎的人。一个激励性的假设是触觉感知， 包括运动和皮肤感受器，可以提供更多 而不是仅仅刺激皮肤感受器。这一假设 从盲人接受语音的Tadoma方法中得到启发 (Reed等人，1985)和正常听障人的能力 用触觉识别物体(Klatzky等人，1985)。在项目I中， 工程和软件开发将继续在触觉刺激器上进行 目前正在加拉德特大学(GU)开发。项目II将 研究语音和非语音触觉刺激。在GU-1研究中，听力正常 失聪的成年人将参与语音识别任务， 触觉刺激旨在通过唇读来帮助言语感知。在……里面 学习GU-2，我们将开始检查触觉感知维度 可以在不用唇语的情况下传达演讲。听障、失聪、失明 (Usher综合征)受试者将给出配对比较相似性判断 用于后续的语音和非语音触觉刺激组 多维缩放。一项名为GU-3的学习研究将检验知觉 言语与非言语的结构、信息传递与分类 言语刺激。印第安纳大学(IU)的项目III将专注于 触觉、非言语模式知觉和对物体的知觉。学习 Iu-1将为工程团队提供对以下修改的评估 触觉刺激器。Iu-2号研究将调查 两个手指的振动和运动模式。这些实验将 包括正常受试者和手部局灶性肌张力障碍的音乐家。 研究IU-3将调查关于物体的信息的传输 通过触觉刺激器进行身份识别。拟议工作的结果将是 有多种用途，包括聋人和聋盲人的语音助听器 局灶性肌张力障碍的个体、评估和可能的补救 手，以及视障人士对物体的遥感。这个 尽管有Tadoma和触觉物体感知的显著例子， 触觉可能仍然是人类知觉中研究最少的 系统。触觉刺激器的发展及其带来的信息 拟议中的研究将为真正地重新理解 总体来说，触觉系统和人类的感知能力。

The first goal of this proposal is to develop a haptic stimulator that provides movement and tactile stimulation to all five fingers and the palm. Using this device, we hope to achieve long-term aims: 1) to understand haptic perception by the hand, including object perception, and movement and vibratory pattern perception; and 2) to put this knowledge to practical use in developing effective communication aids for profoundly deaf and deaf-blind individuals. A motivating hypothesis is that haptic perception, involving both kinesthesis and cutaneous receptors, can provide more information than stimulation to cutaneous receptors alone. This hypothesis draws inspiration from the Tadoma method of speech reception by the blind (Reed et al., 1985) and the ability of normal hearing-sighted individuals to identify objects haptically (Klatzky, et al., 1985). In Project I, engineering and software development will continue on a haptic stimulator currently being developed at Gallaudet University (GU). Project II will study speech and non-speech haptic stimuli. In Study GU-1, normal-hearing and deaf adults will participate in speech identification tasks for which haptic stimuli are designed to aid speech perception via lipreading. In Study GU-2, we will begin to examine haptic perceptual dimensions that might convey speech without lipreading. Hearing-sighted and deaf-blind (Usher syndrome) subjects will give paired-comparison similarity judgments for sets of speech and non-speech haptic stimuli for subsequent multidimensional scaling. A learning study, GU-3, will examine perceptual structure, information transmission and categorization of speech and non- speech stimuli. Project III, at Indiana University (IU), will focus on haptic, non-speech pattern perception and the perception of objects. Study IU-1 will provide evaluations to the engineering team for modifications of the haptic stimulator. Study IU-2 will investigate interactions between vibration and movement patterns on two fingers. These experiments will involve normal subjects and musicians with focal dystonia of the hand. Study IU-3 will investigate the transmission of information about object identity via the haptic stimulator. The results of the proposed work will have diverse applications, including speech aids for deaf and deaf-blind individuals, assessment and possibly remediation of focal dystonia of the hand, and remote sensing of objects by the visually handicapped. The remarkable examples of Tadoma and haptic object perception notwithstanding, haptic perception remains perhaps the least studied of the human perceptual systems. The development of haptic stimulator and the information from the proposed studies will open the way to genuinely new understanding of the haptic system and human perceptual capabilities in general.