Presentation of surface undulation to hand by several discrete stimuli

Abstract

Humans cannot perceive wide and small surface undulation, which is hundreds micrometers in height and hundreds millimeters in width, with their fingertips, whereas they can perceive it by scanning the surface with their whole fingers including the palm to the direction of a long side of the finger. We develop a haptic device that presents surface undulation to the hand, considering the mechanical interaction between the human’s hand and the surface undulation. It is composed of nine independent stimulator units that control heights of nine finger pads of the index finger, the middle finger, and the ring finger (3 on each finger) according to the virtual surface. Fundamental experiment of perceived surface estimation shows the availability of the haptic display.