Bodily awareness and novel multisensory features

According to the decomposition thesis, perceptual experiences resolve without remainder into their different modality-specific components. Contrary to this view, I argue that certain cases of multisensory integration give rise to experiences representing features of a novel type. Through the coordinated use of bodily awareness—understood here as encompassing both proprioception and kinaesthesis—and the exteroceptive sensory modalities, one becomes perceptually responsive to spatial features whose instances couldn’t be represented by any of the contributing modalities functioning in isolation. I develop an argument for this conclusion focusing on two cases: 3D shape perception in haptic touch and experiencing an object’s egocentric location in crossmodally accessible, environmental space

An aesthetics of touch: investigating the language of design relating to form

How well can designers communicate qualities of touch? This paper presents evidence that they have some capability to do so, much of which appears to have been learned, but at present make limited use of such language. Interviews with graduate designer-makers suggest that they are aware of and value the importance of touch and materiality in their work, but lack a vocabulary to fully relate to their detailed explanations of other aspects such as their intent or selection of materials. We believe that more attention should be paid to the verbal dialogue that happens in the design process, particularly as other researchers show that even making-based learning also has a strong verbal element to it. However, verbal language alone does not appear to be adequate for a comprehensive language of touch. Graduate designers-makers’ descriptive practices combined non-verbal manipulation within verbal accounts. We thus argue that haptic vocabularies do not simply describe material qualities, but rather are situated competences that physically demonstrate the presence of haptic qualities. Such competencies are more important than groups of verbal vocabularies in isolation. Design support for developing and extending haptic competences must take this wide range of considerations into account to comprehensively improve designers’ capabilities

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2022, held in Hamburg, Germany, in May 2022. The 36 regular papers included in this book were carefully reviewed and selected from 129 submissions. They were organized in topical sections as follows: haptic science; haptic technology; and haptic applications

Harder and Smoother on Touchscreens? How Interaction Mode Affects Consumer Product Judgment

Emerging technologies, such as touchscreen interaction and mid-air gesture-based interaction, are changing the ways we interact with products virtually. However, despite research on how these technologies can be leveraged to improve consumers’ shopping experience, few studies have explored how they affect consumer product judgment. This study explores how two types of gesture-based human-device interaction modes (i.e., touchscreen interaction and mid-air interaction) influence consumers’ judgment on product haptic attributes (i.e., softness and roughness). Results from a lab experiment reveal that interacting with a product via touchscreen, as compared via a mid-air gesture controller, leads to a lower perception of product softness and roughness. Furthermore, such effects are more salient among users with a higher level of need for touch. The results imply that people may mistakenly use the incidental haptic experience gained from interaction device (e.g., the solid and smooth haptic experience a user feels when interacting with touchscreen surface) in product judgment although such experience is not directly related to the product being evaluated. Theoretical contributions, practical implications, and future research are discussed

Material perception and action : The role of material properties in object handling

This dissertation is about visual perception of material properties and their role in preparation for object handling. Usually before an object is touched or picked-up we estimate its size and shape based on visual features to plan the grip size of our hand. After we have touched the object, the grip size is adjusted according to the provided haptic feedback and the object is handled safely. Similarly, we anticipate the required grip force to handle the object without slippage, based on its visual features and prior experience with similar objects. Previous studies on object handling have mostly examined object characteristics that are typical for object recognition, e.g., size, shape, weight, but in the recent years there has been a growing interest in object characteristics that are more typical to the type of material the object is made from. That said, in a series of studies we investigated the role of perceived material properties in decision-making and object handling, in which both digitally rendered materials and real objects made of different types of materials were presented to human subjects and a humanoid robot. Paper I is a reach-to-grasp study where human subjects were examined using motion capture technology. In this study, participants grasped and lifted paper cups that varied in appearance (i.e., matte vs. glossy) and weight. Here we were interested in both the temporal and spatial components of prehension to examine the role of material properties in grip preparation, and how visual features contribute to inferred hardness before haptic feedback has become available. We found the temporal and spatial components were not exclusively governed by the expected weight of the paper cups, instead glossiness and expected hardness has a significant role as well. In paper II, which is a follow-up on Paper I, we investigated the grip force component of prehension using the same experimental stimuli as used in paper I. In a similar experimental set up, using force sensors we examined the early grip force magnitudes applied by human subjects when grasping and lifting the same paper cups as used in Paper I. Here we found that early grip force scaling was not only guided by the object weight, but the visual characteristics of the material (i.e., matte vs. glossy) had a role as well. Moreover, the results suggest that grip force scaling during the initial object lifts is guided by expected hardness that is to some extend based on visual material properties. Paper III is a visual judgment task where psychophysical measurements were used to examine how the material properties, roughness and glossiness, influence perceived bounce height and consequently perceived hardness. In a paired-comparison task, human subjects observed a bouncing ball bounce on various surface planes and judged their bounce height. Here we investigated, what combination of surface properties, i.e., roughness or glossiness, makes a surface plane to be perceived bounceable. The results demonstrate that surface planes with rough properties are believed to afford higher bounce heights for the bouncing ball, compared to surface planes with smooth properties. Interestingly, adding shiny properties to the rough and smooth surface planes, reduced the judged difference, as if surface planes with gloss are believed to afford higher bounce heights irrespective of how smooth or rough the surface plane is beneath. This suggests that perceived bounce height involves not only the physical elements of the bounce height, but also the visual characteristics of the material properties of the surface planes the ball bounces on. In paper IV we investigated the development of material knowledge using a robotic system. A humanoid robot explored real objects made of different types of materials, using both camera and haptic systems. The objects varied in visual appearances (e.g., texture, color, shape, size), weight, and hardness, and in two experiments, the robot picked up and placed the experimental objects several times using its arm. Here we used the haptic signals from the servos controlling the arm and the shoulder of the robot, to obtain measurements of the weight and hardness of the objects, and the camera system to collect data on the visual features of the objects. After the robot had repeatedly explored the objects, an associative learning model was created based on the training data to demonstrate how the robotic system could produce multi-modal mapping between the visual and haptic features of the objects. In sum, in this thesis we show that visual material properties and prior knowledge of how materials look like and behave like has a significant role in action planning

Spatial-Temporal Characteristics of Multisensory Integration

abstract: We experience spatial separation and temporal asynchrony between visual and haptic information in many virtual-reality, augmented-reality, or teleoperation systems. Three studies were conducted to examine the spatial and temporal characteristic of multisensory integration. Participants interacted with virtual springs using both visual and haptic senses, and their perception of stiffness and ability to differentiate stiffness were measured. The results revealed that a constant visual delay increased the perceived stiffness, while a variable visual delay made participants depend more on the haptic sensations in stiffness perception. We also found that participants judged stiffness stiffer when they interact with virtual springs at faster speeds, and interaction speed was positively correlated with stiffness overestimation. In addition, it has been found that participants could learn an association between visual and haptic inputs despite the fact that they were spatially separated, resulting in the improvement of typing performance. These results show the limitations of Maximum-Likelihood Estimation model, suggesting that a Bayesian inference model should be used.Dissertation/ThesisDoctoral Dissertation Human Systems Engineering 201

Haptics: Science, Technology, Applications

This open access book constitutes the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Human Haptic Sensing and Touch Enabled Computer Applications, EuroHaptics 2020, held in Leiden, The Netherlands, in September 2020. The 60 papers presented in this volume were carefully reviewed and selected from 111 submissions. The were organized in topical sections on haptic science, haptic technology, and haptic applications. This year's focus is on accessibility

Soft Morphological Computation

Soft Robotics is a relatively new area of research, where progress in material science has powered the next generation of robots, exhibiting biological-like properties such as soft/elastic tissues, compliance, resilience and more besides. One of the issues when employing soft robotics technologies is the soft nature of the interactions arising between the robot and its environment. These interactions are complex, and the their dynamics are non-linear and hard to capture with known models. In this thesis we argue that complex soft interactions can actually be beneficial to the robot, and give rise to rich stimuli which can be used for the resolution of robot tasks. We further argue that the usefulness of these interactions depends on statistical regularities, or structure, that appear in the stimuli. To this end, robots should appropriately employ their morphology and their actions, to influence the system-environment interactions such that structure can arise in the stimuli. In this thesis we show that learning processes can be used to perform such a task. Following this rationale, this thesis proposes and supports the theory of Soft Morphological Computation (SoMComp), by which a soft robot should appropriately condition, or ‘affect’, the soft interactions to improve the quality of the physical stimuli arising from it. SoMComp is composed of four main principles, i.e.: Soft Proprioception, Soft Sensing, Soft Morphology and Soft Actuation. Each of these principles is explored in the context of haptic object recognition or object handling in soft robots. Finally, this thesis provides an overview of this research and its future directions.AHDB CP17

FEELING FOR FAILURE: HAPTIC FORCE PERCEPTION OF SOFT TISSUE CONSTRAINTS IN A SIMULATED MINIMALLY INVASIVE SURGERY TASK

In minimally invasive surgery (MIS), the ability to accurately interpret haptic information and apply appropriate force magnitudes onto soft tissue is critical for minimizing bodily trauma. Force perception in MIS is a dynamic process in which the surgeon\u27s administration of force onto tissue results in useful perceptual information which guides further haptic interaction and it is hypothesized that the compliant nature of soft tissue during force application provides biomechanical information denoting tissue failure. Specifically, the perceptual relationship between applied force and material deformation rate specifies the distance remaining until structural capacity will fail, or indicates Distance-to-Break (DTB). Two experiments explored the higher-order relationship of DTB in MIS using novice and surgeon observers. Findings revealed that observers could reliably perceive DTB in simulated biological tissues, and that surgeons performed better than novices. Further, through calibration feedback training, sensitivity to DTB can be improved. Implications for optimizing training in MIS are discussed