Custom haptic displays for the study of perceptual organization via a haptic 'glance'

目前的提议解决了短暂的初始接触在触觉感知组织中的作用，这是一个人类过程，以前从未被触觉科学家全面解决过。感知组织是理解人类感知的关键问题的基础：我们如何从最初的不完整或不准确的信息从我们的感觉受体获得的世界的感知，通常是准确的，明确的和明显完整的？我们的目标是定量评估选定的关键原则分组和分割同时接触的基础上如何接触的手指下移动时，施加力（动力学），以及它们的几何和/或材料接触特性，并评估其后果触摸感知和触摸引导抓。为了评估感知组织对触摸感知和触摸引导抓握的影响，我们正在申请资金来定制设计和定制构建两套仪表化的2指触摸显示器，其在短暂的初始接触期间仔细控制其动力学、几何和/或材料特性。在感知实验中，参与者将直接估计在与两个手指短暂接触后感知1个物体的概率，而不是2个物体。在运动实验中，他们会间接地这样做，选择拇指的位置，以便在先前使用相同的两个手指短暂接触后形成稳定的抓握。位置跟踪系统将用于确定拇指相对于其他两个手指的位置。这些结果将提出有关人类触觉感知和触觉引导抓握的重要问题，并将补充视觉和听觉科学家目前对感知组织的研究。他们也将有助于定量评估受损的感知组织中风患者的触摸的程度。最后，他们将改进以下方面的设计：i）用于触摸传感和触摸引导抓取的遥控机器人系统，ii）有形图形（例如，地图、图表、图片等）用于盲人用户，以及iii）用于盲人和有视力的用户的虚拟触摸环境。 这项建议将培养一些本科生和研究生，博士后和工作人员。

The current proposal addresses the role of brief initial contact in perceptual organization by touch, a human process never comprehensively addressed by touch scientists before. Perceptual organization is fundamental to the key question for understanding human perception: How do we move from initial incomplete or inaccurate information obtained from our sensory receptors to perceptions of the world that are most often accurate, unambiguous and apparently complete? Our objectives are to quantitatively assess selected key principles for grouping and segmenting simultaneous contacts based on how the areas contacted move under the fingers when force is applied (kinetics), as well as on their geometric and/or material contact properties, and to assess their consequences for touch perception and touch-guided grasping. To evaluate the influence of perceptual organization on touch perception and touch-guided grasping, we are requesting funds to custom design and custom build two sets of instrumented 2-finger touch displays that carefully control their kinetic, geometric, and/or material properties during brief initial contact. In the Perception experiments, participants will directly estimate the probability of perceiving 1, as opposed to 2, objects following brief initial contact with two fingers. In the Motor experiments they will do so indirectly by selecting where to position their thumb in order to form a stable grasp following earlier brief contact using the same two fingers. A position-tracking system will be used to determine thumb position with respect to the two other fingers. The results will raise important questions about human touch perception and touch-guided grasping, and will complement current research on perceptual organization by vision and audition scientists. They will also contribute to the quantitative assessment of the extent of impaired perceptual organization by touch in stroke patients. Finally, they will improve the design of: i) telerobotic systems for touch sensing and touch-guided grasping, ii) tangible graphics (e.g., maps, graphs, pictures, etc.) for blind users, and iii) virtual touch environments for both blind and sighted users.  This proposal will train a number of undergraduate and  graduate students, post docs and staff.