This project has been sponsored by Beijing Talents Foundation.

The authors declared no financial disclosure or conflicts of interest.

The driving simulation platform&#160;and vibrating toolkit&#160;reasonably mimicked the application of potential wearable vibrotactile devices in real life, providing an effective technique in investigating driving-related research. With the use of this technology, a safe experimental environment with high configurability and affordability is now available for conducting research that is comparable to real-world driving.
There are several steps that require more attention. Firstly, during the ...

An erratum was issued for:&#160;<a href="https://www-jove-com.bdigitaluss.remotexs.co/t/61408">Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research</a>. The Authors section was&#160;updated.
Ao Zhu1 
Annebella Tsz Ho Choi1 
Ko-Hsuan Ma1 
Shi Cao2 
Han Yao1 
Jian Wu3 
Jibo He4,1 
1Psychology Department, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University 
2Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo 
3Haier Innovation Design Center, Haier Company 
4Psychology Department, School of Education and Psychological Sciences, Sichuan University of Science and Engineering
to:
Ao Zhu1 
Annebella Tsz Ho Choi1 
Ko-Hsuan Ma1 
Shi Cao2 
Han Yao1 
Jian Wu3 
Jibo He1 
1Psychology Department, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University 
2Department of Systems Design Engineering, University of Waterloo 
3Haier Innovation Design Center, Haier Company

An erratum was issued for:&#160;<a href="https://www-jove-com.bdigitaluss.remotexs.co/t/61408">Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research</a>. The Authors section was&#160;updated.

Erratum: Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research

According to the data revealed by the Global Health Estimates in 2016, traffic injury is the eighth cause of global deaths, leading to 1.4 million deaths worldwide1. In the year 2018, 39.2% of the traffic accidents were collisions with motor vehicles in transport, and 7.2% of which were rear-end collisions. A solution to increase vehicle and road safety is the development of an advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) to warn drivers with potential hazards. Data has shown that ADAS can greatly reduce the rate of rear-end collisions, and it is even more effective when equipped with an auto brake system2. In addition, with the development of autonomous vehicles, less human involvement will be required to control the vehicle, making a take-over request (TOR) warning system a necessity when the autonomous vehicle fails to regulate itself. The design of ADAS and TOR warning system is now an important piece of technology for drivers to avoid imminent accidents within a few seconds. The exemplar experiment used a vibrating toolkit along with a driving simulation platform to investigate which location would generate the best outcome when a vibrotactile warning system has been used as a potential ADAS and TOR warning system.
Categorized by perceptual channels, there are generally three types of warning modalities, that is visual, auditory, and tactile. Each warning modality&#160;has its own merits and limitations. When visual warning systems are in use, drivers can suffer from visual overload3, impairing driving performances due to inattentional blindness4,5. Although an auditory warning system does not influence drivers&#39; visual field, its effectiveness greatly depends on the surroundings such as background music and other noises in the driving environment6,7. Thus, situations that contain other external auditory information or significant noise may lead to inattentional deafness8,9, reducing the effectiveness of an auditory warning system. In comparison, tactile warning systems do not compete with drivers&#8217; visual or auditory processing. By sending vibrotactile warnings to drivers, tactile warning systems overcome the limitations of visual and auditory warning systems.
Previous studies showed that tactile warnings can benefit drivers by shortening their brake response time. It was also found that tactile warning systems yield a more effective result over visual10,11 and auditory12,13,14 warning systems in certain situations. However, limited research has focused on investigating the optimal location for placing a tactile warning device. According to sensory cortex hypothesis15 and sensory distance hypothesis16, the exemplar study chose the finger, wrist, and temple areas as the experimental locations for placing a tactile warning device. With the introduced protocol, the frequency and delivering time of a vibrating warning, and intervals between vibrations of the vibrating toolkit, can be configured to fit the experimental requirements. This vibrating toolkit consisted of a master chip, a voltage regulator chip, a multiplexer, a USB to Transistor-Transistor-Logic (TTL) adapter, a Metal-Oxide-Semiconductor Field-Effect Transistor (MOSFET), and a Bluetooth module. The number of vibrating modules can also vary according to researchers&#8217; needs, with up to four modules vibrating at the same time. When implementing the vibrating toolkit in the driving-related experiments, it can be configured to fit the experimental settings as well as synchronized with driving performance data by revising the codes of the driving simulation.
While for researchers, conducting a driving experiment on a virtual platform is more feasible than in the real world due to the risk and cost involved. For instance, collecting performance indicators can be difficult, and it is hard to control the environmental factors involved when experiments are being conducted in the real-world. As a result, many studies have used fixed-base driving simulators running on PCs in recent years as an alternative to conduct on-road driving studies. After learning, developing, and researching for over 11 years in the driving research community, we established a driving simulation platform with a real car that consists of an open-source driving simulation software and a hardware kit, including a steering wheel and gearbox, three pedals, three mounted projectors, and three projector screens. With the driving simulation software supports only a single screen, the presented protocol used only the central projector and projector screen to conduct the experiment.
There are two major advantages of using the presented driving simulation platform. One advantage of this platform is that it uses an open-source software. Using the user-friendly open-source platform, researchers can customize the simulation and vibrating toolkit for their unique research needs by making simple software configuration without any code development&#160;. By revising the codes, researchers can create driving simulations that provide relative fidelity to the reality with plenty of options available on car types, road types, resistance of the steering wheel, lateral and longitudinal wind turbulence, time and brake event application program interfaces (APIs) for external software synchronization, and implementation of the behavioral paradigms such as car-following task and N-Back task. Although conducting driving-related research in a driving simulator cannot fully replicate driving in the real world, data collected through a driving simulator is reasonable and has been widely adopted by researchers17,18.
Another advantage of the proposed driving simulator is its low cost. As mentioned previously, the introduced driving simulation software is an open-source software that is available to users free of charge. In addition, the total cost of the whole hardware setup in this protocol is lower compare to typical high-fidelity commercial driving simulators. Figure 1 a and b show the complete setup of two driving simulators with the cost ranging from $3000 to $30000. In contrast, typical high-fidelity commercial driving simulators (fixed-base) usually cost around $10,000 to $100,000. With its highly affordable price, this driving simulator can be a popular choice not only for academic research purposes, but also for conducting driving classes19 and for demonstration of driving-related technologies20,21.
<img alt="Figure 1" class="xfigimg" src="/files/ftp_upload/61408/61408fig1v2.jpg" /> 
Figure 1: An image of the driving simulators.&#160;Both driving simulators consisted of a steering wheel and gearbox, three pedals, and a vehicle. (a) A $3000 driving simulator setup that used an 80-inch LCD screen with a resolution of 3840 &#215; 2160. (b) A $30000 driving simulator setup that used three mounted projectors and three projector screens with a dimension of 223 x 126 cm each. The projection screens were placed 60 cm above ground and 22 cm away from the front of the vehicle. Only the central projector and projector screen were used for the current experiment. <a href="https://www-jove-com.bdigitaluss.remotexs.co/files/ftp_upload/61408/61408fig1v2large.jpg" target="_blank">Please click here to view a larger version of this figure.</a>
The driving simulation software and vibrating toolkit in the proposed method have already been used in previous studies by our researchers22,23,24,25,26,27,28,29. This self-developed vibrating toolkit following the ISO standard30 can be applied in different fields31,32 by adjusting the vibration frequency and intensity. It is important to note that a newer version of the vibrating toolkit has been developed and is introduced in the following protocol. Instead of adjusting the vibration frequency using an adjustable voltage adapter, the newer version is equipped with five different vibration frequencies and can be easier adjusted using the codes provided in Supplemental Coding File 1. Moreover, the presented driving simulator provides researchers with a safe, inexpensive, and effective way to investigate various kinds of driving-related research. Thus, this protocol is suitable for research laboratories that have a limited budget and have a strong need to customize experimental driving environments.

<table><tbody><tr><td>Logitech G29</td><td>Logitech</td><td>941-000114</td><td>Steering wheel and pedals</td></tr><tr><td>Projector screens</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>The projector screen for showing the simulation enivronemnt.</td></tr><tr><td>Epson CB-700U Laser WUXGA Education Ultra Short Focus Interactive Projector</td><td>EPSON</td><td>V11H878520W</td><td>The projector model for generating the display of the simlution enivronment.</td></tr><tr><td>The Open Racing Car Simulator (TORCS)</td><td>-</td><td>None</td><td>Driving simulation software. The original creators are Eric Espi&amp;eacute; and Christophe Guionneau, and the version used in experiment is modified by Cao, Shi.</td></tr><tr><td>Tactile toolkit</td><td>Hao Xing Tech.</td><td>None</td><td>This is used to initiate warnings to the participants.</td></tr><tr><td>Connecting program (Python)</td><td>-</td><td>-</td><td>This is used to connect the TORCS with the tactile toolkit to send the vibrating instruction.</td></tr><tr><td>G*power</td><td>Heinrich-Heine-Universit&amp;auml;t D&amp;uuml;sseldorf</td><td>None</td><td>This software is used to calculate the required number of participants.</td></tr></tbody></table>

tactile vibrating toolkit and driving simulation platform for driving-related research

Collision warning system plays a key role in the prevention of driving distractions and drowsy driving. Previous studies have proven the advantages of tactile warnings in reducing driver&#8217;s brake response time. At the same time, tactile warnings have been proved effective in take-over request (TOR) for partially autonomous vehicles.
How the performance of tactile warnings can be optimized is an ongoing hot research topic in this field. Thus, the presented low-cost driving simulation software and methods are introduced to attract more researchers to take part in the investigation. The presented protocol has been divided into five sections: 1) participants, 2) driving simulation software configuration, 3) driving simulator preparation, 4) vibrating toolkit configuration and preparation, and 5) conducting the experiment.
In the exemplar study, participants wore the tactile vibrating toolkit and performed an established car-following task using the customized driving simulation software. The front vehicle braked intermittently, and vibrating warnings were delivered whenever the front vehicle was braking. Participants were instructed to respond as quickly as possible to the sudden brakes of the front vehicle. Driving dynamics, such as the brake response time and brake response rate, were recorded by the simulation software for data analysis.
The presented protocol offers insight into the exploration of the effectiveness of tactile warnings on different body locations. In addition to the car-following task that is demonstrated in the exemplar experiment, this protocol also provides options&#160;to apply other paradigms to the driving simulation studies by making simple software configuration without any code development. However, it is important to note that due to its affordable price, the driving simulation software and hardware introduced here may not be able to fully compete with other high-fidelity commercial driving simulators. Nevertheless, this protocol can act as an affordable and user-friendly alternative to the general high-fidelity commercial driving simulators.

The exemplar study reported in this paper conducted&#160;the car-following task using the driving simulator and vibrating toolkit, which has also been published previously in an academic journal22. It is noteworthy that the older version of the vibrating toolkit was used when conducting the exemplar study, while a new version of the vibrating toolkit was introduced in the above protocol. The study was a within-subject design experiment with vibrating warning location as the only factor: finger, wr...

Watch this Scientific Journal Video about Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research at JoVE.com

Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research

This protocol describes a driving simulation platform and a tactile vibrating toolkit for the investigation of driving-related research. An exemplar experiment exploring the effectiveness of tactile warnings is also presented.&#160;

Collision warning system plays a key role in the prevention of driving distractions and drowsy driving. Previous studies have proven the advantages of ...

tactile-vibrating-toolkit-driving-simulation-platform-for-driving

Universidad San Sebastian

Research

JoVE Journal

Behavior

4.4K Views.  Tsinghua University. This protocol describes a driving simulation platform and a tactile vibrating toolkit for the investigation of driving-related research. An exemplar experiment exploring the effectiveness of tactile warnings is also presented. 

Video: Tactile Vibrating Toolkit and Driving Simulation Platform for Driving-Related Research

Haptic/Graphic Rehabilitation: Integrating a Robot into a Virtual Environment Library and Applying it to Stroke Therapy

Recent research that tests interactive devices for prolonged therapy practice has revealed new prospects for robotics combined with graphical and other forms of biofeedback. Previous human-robot interactive systems have required different software commands to be implemented for each robot leading to unnecessary developmental overhead time each time a new system becomes available. For example, when a haptic/graphic virtual reality environment has been coded for one specific robot to provide haptic feedback, that specific robot would not be able to be traded for another robot without recoding the program. However, recent efforts in the open source community have proposed a wrapper class approach that can elicit nearly identical responses regardless of the robot used. The result can lead researchers across the globe to perform similar experiments using shared code. Therefore modular "switching out"of one robot for another would not affect development time. In this paper, we outline the successful creation and implementation of a wrapper class for one robot into the open-source H3DAPI, which integrates the software commands most commonly used by all robots.

Recently, a vast amount of prospects have come available for human-robot interactive systems. In this paper we outline the integration of a new robotic device with open source software that can rapidly make possible a library of interactive functionality. We then outline a clinical application for a neurorehabilitation application.

Recent research that tests interactive devices for prolonged therapy practice has revealed new prospects for robotics combined with graphical and other ...

Bioengineering

Measurement of Vibration Detection Threshold and Tactile Spatial Acuity in Human Subjects

Tests that allow the precise determination of psychophysical thresholds for vibration and grating orientation provide valuable information about mechanosensory function that are relevant for clinical diagnosis as well as for basic research. Here, we describe two psychophysical tests designed to determine the vibration detection threshold (automated system) and tactile spatial acuity (handheld device). Both procedures implement a two-interval forced-choice and a transformed-rule up and down experimental paradigm. These tests have been used to obtain mechanosensory profiles for individuals from distinct human cohorts such as twins or people with sensorineural deafness.

Here, we present protocols to determine vibration detection thresholds and tactile acuity using psychophysical methods in man.

Tests that allow the precise determination of psychophysical thresholds for vibration and grating orientation provide valuable information about ...

Testing Tactile Masking between the Forearms

Masking, in which one stimulus affects the detection of another, is a classic technique that has been used in visual, auditory, and tactile research, usually using stimuli that are close together to reveal local interactions. Masking effects have also been demonstrated in which a tactile stimulus alters the perception of a touch at a distant location. Such effects can provide insight into how components of the body's representations in the brain may be linked. Occasional reports have indicated that touches on one hand or forearm can affect tactile sensitivity at corresponding contralateral locations. To explore the matching of corresponding points across the body, we can measure the spatial tuning and effect of posture on contralateral masking. Careful controls are required to rule out direct effects of the remote stimulus, for example by mechanical transmission, and also attention effects in which thresholds may be altered by the participant's attention being drawn away from the stimulus of interest. The use of this technique is beneficial as a behavioural measure for exploring which parts of the body are functionally connected and whether the two sides of the body interact in a somatotopic representation. This manuscript describes a behavioural protocol that can be used for studying contralateral tactile masking.

Here we explore contralateral tactile masking between the forearms in which tactile detection thresholds are modulated by vibration applied to a remote site. The details of which remote sites have an effect can tell us about how the body is represented in the brain.

Masking, in which one stimulus affects the detection of another, is a classic technique that has been used in visual, auditory, and tactile research, ...

Simulation of Human-induced Vibrations Based on the Characterized In-field Pedestrian Behavior

For slender and lightweight structures, vibration serviceability is a matter of growing concern, often constituting the critical design requirement. With designs governed by the dynamic performance under human-induced loads, a strong demand exists for the verification and refinement of currently available load models. The present contribution uses a 3D inertial motion tracking technique for the characterization of the in-field pedestrian behavior. The technique is first tested in laboratory experiments with simultaneous registration of the corresponding ground reaction forces. The experiments include walking persons as well as rhythmical human activities such as jumping and bobbing. It is shown that the registered motion allows for the identification of the time variant pacing rate of the activity. Together with the weight of the person and the application of generalized force models available in literature, the identified time-variant pacing rate allows to characterize the human-induced loads. In addition, time synchronization among the wireless motion trackers allows identifying the synchronization rate among the participants. Subsequently, the technique is used on a real footbridge where both the motion of the persons and the induced structural vibrations are registered. It is shown how the characterized in-field pedestrian behavior can be applied to simulate the induced structural response. It is demonstrated that the in situ identified pacing rate and synchronization rate constitute an essential input for the simulation and verification of the human-induced loads. The main potential applications of the proposed methodology are the estimation of human-structure interaction phenomena and the development of suitable models for the correlation among pedestrians in real traffic conditions.

A protocol is presented for the characterization of the in-field pedestrian behavior and the simulation of the resulting structural response. Field-tests demonstrate that the in situ identified pacing rate and synchronization rate among the participants constitute an essential input for the simulation and verification of the human-induced loads.

For slender and lightweight structures, vibration serviceability is a matter of growing concern, often constituting the critical design requirement. With ...

Engineering

Driving Simulation in the Clinic: Testing Visual Exploratory Behavior in Daily Life Activities in Patients with Visual Field Defects

Patients suffering from homonymous hemianopia after infarction of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) report different degrees of constraint in daily life, despite similar visual deficits. We assume this could be due to variable development of compensatory strategies such as altered visual scanning behavior. Scanning compensatory therapy (SCT) is studied as part of the visual training after infarction next to vision restoration therapy. SCT consists of learning to make larger eye movements into the blind field enlarging the visual field of search, which has been proven to be the most useful strategy1, not only in natural search tasks but also in mastering daily life activities2. Nevertheless, in clinical routine it is difficult to identify individual levels and training effects of compensatory behavior, since it requires measurement of eye movements in a head unrestrained condition. Studies demonstrated that unrestrained head movements alter the visual exploratory behavior compared to a head-restrained laboratory condition3. Martin et al.4 and Hayhoe et al.5 showed that behavior demonstrated in a laboratory setting cannot be assigned easily to a natural condition. Hence, our goal was to develop a study set-up which uncovers different compensatory oculomotor strategies quickly in a realistic testing situation: Patients are tested in the clinical environment in a driving simulator. SILAB software (Wuerzburg Institute for Traffic Sciences GmbH (WIVW)) was used to program driving scenarios of varying complexity and recording the driver's performance. The software was combined with a head mounted infrared video pupil tracker, recording head- and eye-movements (EyeSeeCam, University of Munich Hospital, Clinical Neurosciences).
The positioning of the patient in the driving simulator and the positioning, adjustment and calibration of the camera is demonstrated. Typical performances of a patient with and without compensatory strategy and a healthy control are illustrated in this pilot study. Different oculomotor behaviors (frequency and amplitude of eye- and head-movements) are evaluated very quickly during the drive itself by dynamic overlay pictures indicating where the subjects gaze is located on the screen, and by analyzing the data. Compensatory gaze behavior in a patient leads to a driving performance comparable to a healthy control, while the performance of a patient without compensatory behavior is significantly worse. The data of eye- and head-movement-behavior as well as driving performance are discussed with respect to different oculomotor strategies and in a broader context with respect to possible training effects throughout the testing session and implications on rehabilitation potential.

Patients with visual deficits after stroke report about different constraints in daily life most likely due to variable compensatory strategies, which are difficult to differentiate in clinical routine. We present a clinical set-up which allows measurement of different compensatory head- and eye-movement-strategies and evaluating their effects on driving performance.

Patients suffering from homonymous hemianopia after infarction of the posterior cerebral artery (PCA) report different degrees of constraint in daily ...

Medicine

A Simple Non-invasive Method for Temporary Knockdown of Upper Limb Proprioception

Proprioception may be the least well measured of all contributors to the neural control of movement. New precise, reliable measures of proprioception are needed for clinical diagnosis of impairment, and to measure outcomes of proprioceptive training. The purpose of this simple, non-invasive method is to temporarily knockdown upper limb proprioception in healthy adults, to an extent that would be useful in the development and testing of upper limb proprioception measures. Knockdown models have two main advantages over studying humans with impaired proprioception: participant availability and the ability to control the extent of impairment across participants. Current published methods of temporary proprioception knockdown of the upper limb, such as ischemic nerve blocks and cryotherapy, are invasive, impractical, or uncomfortable for the participant. Here, vibration over the ulnar groove was used to reduce upper limb proprioception. High frequency vibration may reduce proprioceptive acuity by inhibiting pacinian corpuscle-induced input. The effect of vibration used in this protocol was confirmed using two quantitative measures. This method was simple to administer, comfortable for participants, and practical.

The goal of this protocol is to demonstrate a practical method to temporarily interfere with proprioception in the upper limb of healthy humans.

Proprioception may be the least well measured of all contributors to the neural control of movement. New precise, reliable measures of proprioception are ...

A Vibrotactile Feedback Device for Seated Balance Assessment and Training

Postural perturbations, motion tracking, and sensory feedback are modern techniques used to challenge, assess, and train upright sitting, respectively. The goal of the developed protocol is to construct and operate a sitting platform that can be passively destabilized while an inertial measurement unit quantifies its motion and vibrating elements deliver tactile feedback to the user. Interchangeable seat attachments alter the stability level of the device to safely challenge sitting balance. A built-in microcontroller allows fine-tuning of the feedback parameters to augment sensory function. Posturographic measures, typical of balance assessment protocols, summarize the motion signals acquired during timed balance trials. No dynamic sitting protocol to date provides variable challenge, quantification, and sensory feedback free of laboratory constraints. Our results demonstrate that non-disabled users of the device exhibit significant changes in posturographic measures when balance difficulty is altered or vibrational feedback provided. The portable, versatile device has potential applications in rehabilitation (following skeletal, muscular, or neurological injury), training (for sports or spatial awareness), entertainment (via virtual or augmented reality), and research (of sitting-related disorders).

A sitting platform has been developed and assembled that passively destabilizes sitting posture in humans. During the user&#39;s stabilizing task, an inertial measurement unit records the device&#39;s motion, and vibrating elements deliver performance-based feedback to the seat. The portable, versatile device may be used in rehabilitation, assessment, and training paradigms.

Postural perturbations, motion tracking, and sensory feedback are modern techniques used to challenge, assess, and train upright sitting, respectively. ...

Applying Incongruent Visual-Tactile Stimuli during Object Transfer with Vibro-Tactile Feedback

The application of incongruent sensory signals that involves disrupted tactile feedback is rarely explored, specifically with the presence of vibrotactile feedback (VTF). This protocol aims to test the effect of VTF on the response to incongruent visual-tactile stimuli. The tactile feedback is acquired by grasping a block and moving it across a partition. The visual feedback is a real-time virtual presentation of the moving block, acquired using a motion capture system. The congruent feedback is the reliable presentation of the movement of the block, so that the subject feels that the block is grasped and see it move along with the path of the hand. The incongruent feedback appears as the movement of the block diverts from the actual movement path, so that it seems to drop from the hand when it is actually still held by the subject, thereby contradicting the tactile feedback. Twenty subjects (age 30.2 &#177; 16.3) repeated 16 block transfers, while their hand was hidden. These were repeated with VTF and without VTF (total of 32 block transfers). Incongruent stimuli were presented randomly twice within the 16 repetitions in each condition (with and without VTF). Each subject was asked to rate the difficulty level of performing the task with and without the VTF. There were no statistically significant differences in the length of the hand paths and durations between transfers recorded with congruent and incongruent visual-tactile signals &#8211; with and without the VTF. The perceived difficulty level of performing the task with the VTF significantly correlated with the normalized path length of the block with VTF (r = 0.675, p = 0.002). This setup is used to quantify the additive or reductive value of VTF during motor function that involves incongruent visual-tactile stimuli. Possible applications are prosthetics design, smart sport-wear, or any other garments that incorporate VTF.

We present a protocol to apply incongruent visual-tactile stimuli during an object transfer task. Specifically, during block transfers, performed while the hand is hidden, a virtual presentation of the block shows random occurrences of false block drops. The protocol also describes adding vibrotactile feedback while performing the motor task.

The application of incongruent sensory signals that involves disrupted tactile feedback is rarely explored, specifically with the presence of vibrotactile ...

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator (TAPS)

Although tactile spatial acuity tests are used in both neuroscience research and clinical assessment, few automated devices exist for delivering controlled spatially structured stimuli to the skin. Consequently, investigators often apply tactile stimuli manually. Manual stimulus application is time consuming, requires great care and concentration on the part of the investigator, and leaves many stimulus parameters uncontrolled. We describe here a computer-controlled tactile stimulus system, the Tactile Automated Passive-finger Stimulator (TAPS), that applies spatially structured stimuli to the skin, controlling for onset velocity, contact force, and contact duration. TAPS is a versatile, programmable system, capable of efficiently conducting a variety of psychophysical procedures. We describe the components of TAPS, and show how TAPS is used to administer a two-interval forced-choice tactile grating orientation test.
Corresponding Author: Daniel Goldreich

A Tactile Automated Passive-Finger Stimulator TAPS

We describe a computer-controlled device for investigating the sense of touch: the Tactile Automated Passive-finger Stimulator (TAPS). We describe the components of TAPS, and show how TAPS is used to administer a two-interval forced-choice tactile grating orientation test.

Although tactile spatial acuity tests are used in both neuroscience research and clinical assessment, few automated devices exist for delivering ...

Biology

A Method for Evaluating Timeliness and Accuracy of Volitional Motor Responses to Vibrotactile Stimuli

Artificial sensory feedback (ASF) systems can be used to compensate for lost proprioception in individuals with lower-limb impairments. Effective design of these ASF systems requires an in-depth understanding of how the parameters of specific feedback mechanism affect user perception and reaction to stimuli. This article presents a method for applying vibrotactile stimuli to human participants and measuring their response. Rotating mass vibratory motors are placed at pre-defined locations on the participant's thigh, and controlled through custom hardware and software. The speed and accuracy of participants' volitional responses to vibrotactile stimuli are measured for researcher-specified combinations of motor placement and vibration frequency. While the protocol described here uses push-buttons to collect a simple binary response to the vibrotactile stimuli, the technique can be extended to other response mechanisms using inertial measurement units or pressure sensors to measure joint angle and weight bearing ratios, respectively. Similarly, the application of vibrotactile stimuli can be explored for body segments other than the thigh.

This article describes a technique for applying vibrotactile stimuli to the thigh of a human participant, and measuring the accuracy and reaction time of the participant&#39;s volitional response for various combinations of stimulation location and frequency.

Artificial sensory feedback (ASF) systems can be used to compensate for lost proprioception in individuals with lower-limb impairments.  Effective design ...