Direction-Specific Effects of Artificial Skin-Stretch on Stiffness Perception and Grip Force Control

Mor Farajian, Raz Leib, Hanna Kossowsky, Ilana Nisky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

2 Scopus citations

Abstract

When interacting with an object, we use kinesthetic and tactile information to create our perception of the object's properties and to prevent its slippage using grip force control. We previously showed that applying artificial skin-stretch together with, and in the same direction as, kinesthetic force increases the perceived stiffness. Here, we investigated the effect of the direction of the artificial stretch on stiffness perception and grip force control. We presented participants with kinesthetic force together with negative or positive artificial stretch, in the opposite or the same direction of the natural stretch due to the kinesthetic force, respectively. Our results showed that artificial skin-stretch in both directions augmented the perceived stiffness; however, the augmentation caused by the negative stretch was consistently lower than that caused by the positive stretch. Additionally, we proposed a computational model that predicts the perceptual effects based on the preferred directions of the stimulated mechanoreceptors. When examining the grip force, we found that participants applied higher grip forces during the interactions with positive skin-stretch in comparison to the negative skin-stretch, which is consistent with the perceptual results. These results may be useful in tactile technologies for wearable haptic devices, teleoperation, and robot-assisted surgery.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)836-847
Number of pages12
JournalIEEE Transactions on Haptics
Volume16
Issue number4
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Oct 2023

Keywords

  • Artificial skin-stretch
  • computational model
  • grip force control
  • mechanoreceptors
  • stiffness perception

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Human-Computer Interaction
  • Computer Science Applications

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