Softness Sensation by a Side-Faced-Type Multifingered Haptic Interface

Abstract

When we touch a soft, yielding object such as the human body, we feel a sensation of softness. In virtual training systems for medical procedures such as palpation, the display of softness at multiple fingertips is critical and essential. This paper proposes a softness-display device using a flexible sheet, and we present the concept of softness display at multiple fingers by combining the developed softness-display device and our previously developed side-faced-type multifingered haptic interface. Further, we carried out several experiments to investigate the validity of the proposed system.