Tactile Feel and Tribology of Biological Materials

Physical Origin of Texture of Skin, Fur and Wood

Abstract

We show that the features of biological materials, i.e. fur and wood, are warm, silky, and nonslippery sensations, which are governed by thermal conductivity, surface energy, and surface roughness. Interestingly, surface roughness is the most important factor in determining these three tactile sensations. When subjects touched biological materials, they perceived favorable feels : “Suki” and “Kaiteki”. These finding are valuable for developing some industrial products as well as for understanding the cognitive mechanism of biological materials.