Fingertip skin models for analysis of the haptic perception of textiles

Abstract

This paper presents finite\relement models of the fingertip skin which have been created to simulate the\rcontact of textile objects with the skin to gain a better understanding of the\rperception of textiles through the skin, the so-called hand of textiles. Many\robjective and subjective techniques have already been developed for analysing\rthe hand of textiles; however, none of them provide exact overall information\rconcerning the sensation of textiles through the skin. As the human skin is a\rcomplex heterogeneous hyperelastic body composed of many particles, some\rsimplifications had to be made at the early stage of building the models;\rhowever, their utilitarian value was maintained. The models relate only to mechanical\rloading of the skin. They predict a low deformation of the fingertip skin under\rthe pressure of virtual heterogeneous material: acrylic, coarse wool, and\rsteel.