Effect of the Direction of Finger Pad Skin Stretch on Reproduction of Tracing Sensation

Abstract

To reproduce tracing sensation on a surface, it was considered to require a skin-deformation device with at least two degrees of freedom. In contrast to such a conventional design, we hypothesized that the direction of shear deformation does not affect the realistic of tracing sensation, thus the device mechanism can be simplified. The experimental results showed that even when the direction of skin deformation was opposite or perpendicular to the finger movement, participants still perceived it as natural. Therefore, we concluded that when the finger moves, we do not need to precisely reproduce the direction of skin deformation.