爪上振動刺激が触覚感度及び巧緻性に与える影響

抄録

In this paper, we propose a method to improve tactile sensitivity and manual dexterity of the finger pads by presenting weak vibrations to the fingernails. Since the vibrator is mounted on the nail, it does not obstruct the tactile perception of the finger pad. In addition, the intensity of the vibration can be small because the vibration is transmitted from close to the finger pad. This enables the use of a small piezo resonator that fits over the pawl and does not interfere with manual work. First, tactile sensitivity of the finger pad was evaluated by a roughness discrimination test using sandpaper, and the correct answer rate was significantly improved when vibrations of the same intensity as the perception threshold were presented to the nails. Next, manual dexterity was evaluated using a hand task with a grooved pegboard, and task completion time was significantly improved when a threshold vibration was applied to the nail. These results showed that both tactile sensitivity and manual dexterity of the finger pad were improved by weak vibrations to the fingernails. The reason for this result seems to be that the weak vibrations improved the haptic feedback capability during the manual work. These results suggest that the proposed method has the potential to support manual work mainly using the fingertips.