Abstract
Monitoring of scratching motion, accompany with itchiness, is important for the medical treatment of skin diseases associated with itchiness. In previous study, the sensor system for measuring human scratching by scratch sound is developed and the relationship between the scratch sounds and the mechanical characteristics of human scratch motion was investigated. However, evaluation of human scratching motion against their own skin is not enough, because it is difficult to measure the contact force against human skin during scratching human skin. Therefore, in this paper, in order to measure the contact force, such as pressing force and shearing force of human scratching motion against their own skin, a contact force estimation method using three dimensional motion measurement system is proposed. In experiment, motions of scratching weakly and strongly artificial skin placed on 3-axis force sensor were measured. And finger tip trajectories and deformation of artificial skin were analyzed and compared with contact force. From the result, it is confirmed that the proposed estimation method is available to estimate the contact force during scratching.
