Development of a sole pressure display

Abstract

We have developed a haptic device that presents a pressure sensation on the sole of the foot. The device is comprised of an triangular array of 128 air cylinders aligned 10 mm pitch. Each air cylinder is capable of presenting a force of 3.5 N, hence 4 N/cm2. The size of the array is approximately 7.5 × 13 cm, which will cover about the half of the foot. Using the device, a preliminary experiment on the characteristics of groping of the foot was performed, and it was observed that the area and direction of the foot affected the accuracy of position recognition.