Showing papers on "Haptic technology published in 1988"

Somatosensory cortical mechanisms of feature detection in tactile and kinesthetic discrimination

Abstract: Neurons in somatosensory cortex of primates process sensory information from the hand by integrating information from large populations of receptors to extract specific features. Tactile neurons in areas 1 and 2 are shown to select features such as contact area, edge orientation, motion across the skin, or direction of movement. Features coded by kinesthetic neurons in areas 3a and 2 relate to joint movement, the joint angle around which the movement occurs, or coordinated postures of the hand and arm. An even higher order cortical cell integrates tactile and kinesthetic information; these "haptic neurons" respond optimally to contact of objects actively grasped in the hand. These global features are coded at the expense of loss of information concerning fine-grained spatial detail.

The Intelligent Hand

Abstract: Publisher Summary This chapter presents a theoretical perspective of haptic processing of objects. Haptics is a perceptual system incorporating inputs from multiple sensory systems. It includes a cutaneous system that senses pressure and vibration and—although rarely considered when discussing haptics—thermal sensing, which may be of considerable importance for the perception of objects. The term “haptics” is an umbrella that includes all of the sensory subsystems derived from the involvement of the skin, muscles, and joints. Object processing means both the apprehension of the structural and substantive attributes of objects and the categorization of the objects into previously established classes. The chapter discusses two phenomena that have been documented in both laboratory studies and informal demonstrations: (1) haptics is very poor at apprehending spatial-layout information in a two-dimensional plane and (2) haptics is very good at learning about and recognizing three-dimensional objects. The chapter describes the relationship between the exploratory movements of the human hand and the desired knowledge about an object.

Haptic processing of spatially distributed information

Abstract: A haptic search paradigm, adapted from Treisman and Gelade’s (1980) visual search tasks, was used as an initial step in addressing issues relevant to the development of models of human and machine haptic object processing. Texture and/or edge-orientation information were presented to multiple finger locations in disjunction (Experiment 1) and conjunction (Experiment 2) search tasks. In Experiment 3, subjects performed a difficult single-feature (orientation) search. Although the disjunction task could be interpreted with parallel or serial exhaustive models of haptic processing, subjects showed a shift toward serial self-terminating processing with the more complex and difficult tasks. These results indicate processing changes when features of texture and shape must be integrated. Given other converging evidence, texture may be a better candidate than edge orientation for early perceptual processing, with information being processed preattentively and in parallel.

Telepresence for touch and proprioception in teleoperator systems

Abstract: The control and operation of mechanical manipulators by a human and the use of sensory tactile and force feedback is reviewed. The terms telepresence, teleproprioception, and teletouch are defined and relevant technologies that have or could have been applied to teleoperation are discussed. An ideal method of tactile sensory feedback for teleoperators that is based upon reproduction of the object's contour is discussed, and its practicality considered. Previously developed components that could be used to build a system incorporating sensory tactile and force feedback are presented. >

Short-term haptic memory for three-dimensional objects.

Abstract: In 8 experiments college students felt 32 geometric objects and were tested in a signal-detection framework to same or distractor items. Retention intervals and intervening experiences were also manipulated following initial touching. In all instances performance was high, and there was no evidence of a decline in haptic sensitivity over the retention intervals employed. These surprising results were interpreted as consistent with the 1985 contention of Klatzky, Lederman, and Metzger that the haptic modality constitutes an expert system.

What the robot's hand should tell the robot's brain: feature detection in a biological neural network

Abstract: Biological neural networks in the somatosensory system process haptic information from the hand when it grasps and manipulates objects. The author describes how tactile sensors in the skin detect surface features which are of functional importance to the organism and how this information is further transformed by the central nervous system. The parallel processing mechanisms used by the primate hand may be instructive for developing intelligent controllers for robotic hands. >