指腹部変形の有限要素シミュレーションを用いたヒト凹凸触認識メカニズムの研究(<特集>ハプティクスとVR)

抄録

The hand fingerpad is one of the sensitive parts in human body. It can detect the surface features such as bumps and holes very quickly. However, the algorithm how we recognize such surface features in the brain has not been well studied. This study investigates human surface form recognition in terms of both psychological shape recognition performance for surface features and mechanical deformation produced by surface features. We utilized the finite element model of fingerpad which mimics the anatomical structure of finger tissue, and calculated the mechanical deformation in contacting indented or raised surface. We analyzed the deformation pattern in terms of the strain energy density in the locations where Merkel cells are typically observed. By comparing previous study on the human surface form recognition performance in fingerpad, we propose tactile recognition algorithm for identifying whether the surface form is raised or indented. The outcome of this research is not only valuable for comprehending the tactile recognition algorithm in human, but also insightful for developing tactile sensors which enables to detect surface form features.