Finger-mounted skin vibration sensor for active touch

Abstract

The purpose of this study is the development of a tactile sensor including bidirectionality and self-reference of human tactile perception. This sensor has a potential to apply for measuring object's properties, understanding tactile perception, sharing tactile sensations, etc. by utilizing human ability and including human tactile characteristic. In this paper, we propose a finger-mounted skin vibration sensor using two accelerometers. The sensor does not interfere in contact of an object and the skin. One of the two accelerometers measures skin vibration and finger movement, and another measures only finger movement. Using signals from both accelerometers, the skin vibration is extracted during active touch. The frequency response of the sensor and the experimental results in active roughness perception show the availability of the sensor. © 2012 Springer-Verlag.