6,324 research outputs found
Electrotactile feedback applications for hand and arm interactions: A systematic review, meta-analysis, and future directions
Haptic feedback is critical in a broad range of
human-machine/computer-interaction applications. However, the high cost and low
portability/wearability of haptic devices remain unresolved issues, severely
limiting the adoption of this otherwise promising technology. Electrotactile
interfaces have the advantage of being more portable and wearable due to their
reduced actuators' size, as well as their lower power consumption and
manufacturing cost. The applications of electrotactile feedback have been
explored in human-computer interaction and human-machine-interaction for
facilitating hand-based interactions in applications such as prosthetics,
virtual reality, robotic teleoperation, surface haptics, portable devices, and
rehabilitation. This paper presents a technological overview of electrotactile
feedback, as well a systematic review and meta-analysis of its applications for
hand-based interactions. We discuss the different electrotactile systems
according to the type of application. We also discuss over a quantitative
congregation of the findings, to offer a high-level overview into the
state-of-art and suggest future directions. Electrotactile feedback systems
showed increased portability/wearability, and they were successful in rendering
and/or augmenting most tactile sensations, eliciting perceptual processes, and
improving performance in many scenarios. However, knowledge gaps (e.g.,
embodiment), technical (e.g., recurrent calibration, electrodes' durability)
and methodological (e.g., sample size) drawbacks were detected, which should be
addressed in future studies.Comment: 18 pages, 1 table, 8 figures, under review in Transactions on
Haptics. This work has been submitted to the IEEE for possible publication.
Copyright may be transferred without notice, after which this version may no
longer be accessible.Upon acceptance of the article by IEEE, the preprint
article will be replaced with the accepted versio
Somatic ABC's: A Theoretical Framework for Designing, Developing and Evaluating the Building Blocks of Touch-Based Information Delivery
abstract: Situations of sensory overload are steadily becoming more frequent as the ubiquity of technology approaches reality--particularly with the advent of socio-communicative smartphone applications, and pervasive, high speed wireless networks. Although the ease of accessing information has improved our communication effectiveness and efficiency, our visual and auditory modalities--those modalities that today's computerized devices and displays largely engage--have become overloaded, creating possibilities for distractions, delays and high cognitive load; which in turn can lead to a loss of situational awareness, increasing chances for life threatening situations such as texting while driving. Surprisingly, alternative modalities for information delivery have seen little exploration. Touch, in particular, is a promising candidate given that it is our largest sensory organ with impressive spatial and temporal acuity. Although some approaches have been proposed for touch-based information delivery, they are not without limitations including high learning curves, limited applicability and/or limited expression. This is largely due to the lack of a versatile, comprehensive design theory--specifically, a theory that addresses the design of touch-based building blocks for expandable, efficient, rich and robust touch languages that are easy to learn and use. Moreover, beyond design, there is a lack of implementation and evaluation theories for such languages. To overcome these limitations, a unified, theoretical framework, inspired by natural, spoken language, is proposed called Somatic ABC's for Articulating (designing), Building (developing) and Confirming (evaluating) touch-based languages. To evaluate the usefulness of Somatic ABC's, its design, implementation and evaluation theories were applied to create communication languages for two very unique application areas: audio described movies and motor learning. These applications were chosen as they presented opportunities for complementing communication by offloading information, typically conveyed visually and/or aurally, to the skin. For both studies, it was found that Somatic ABC's aided the design, development and evaluation of rich somatic languages with distinct and natural communication units.Dissertation/ThesisPh.D. Computer Science 201
Wearable assistive tactile communication interface based on integrated touch sensors and actuators
This paper presents the design and fabrication of a wearable tactile communication interface with vibrotactile feedback for assistive communication. The interface is based on finger Braille, which is a simple and efficient tactile communication method used by deafblind people. It consists of a flexible piezoresistive sensor and a vibrotactile actuator integrated together and positioned at the index, middle and ring fingers of both hands to represent the six dots of Braille. The sensors were made using flexible piezoresistive material whereas the actuator utilizes electromagnetic principle by means of a flexible coil and a tiny NdFeB permanent magnet. Both were integrated to realize a Bluetooth-enabled tactile communication glove which enables deafblind people to communicate using Braille codes. The evaluation with 20 end-users (10 deafblind and 10 sighted and hearing person) of the tactile interface under standardized conditions demonstrated that users can feel and distinguish the vibration at frequencies ranging from 10Hz to 200Hz which is within the perceivable frequency range for the FA-II receptors. The results show that it took non-experts in Braille within 25s and 55s to send and receive words like âBESTâ and âJOURNALâ, with an accuracy of ~75% and 68% respectively
Eksaptatsioon: ĂŒhe bioloogilise mĂ”iste semiootilise kirjelduse poole
VĂ€itekirja elektrooniline versioon ei sisalda publikatsioone.KĂ€esolev doktoritöö modelleerib eksaptatsiooni kui evolutsioonilist nĂ€htust, lĂ€htudes C.S. Peirceâi mĂ€rgi- ja tuletusteooriast. Selle teostamiseks keskendub esimene osa âEnne eksaptatsiooni: eel-adapteerumine ja Chauncey Wrightâ mĂ”iste tĂ€hendusele ning toob vĂ€lja selle ulatusliku ajaloolise tausta. Erilist tĂ€helepanu pööratakse C. Wrighti vanade jĂ”udude uue kasutuse printsiibile ning tema intellektuaalsele seosele Darwiniga.
Töö teine osa âWright ja Peirce pragmatismist ja evolutsioonistâ uurib Wrightâi ja Peirceâi vahelisi sarnasusi ja erinevusi, pidades silmas Darwini teooria epistemoloogilist staatust, nende erinevat lĂ€henemist Lamarckâi teooriatele ning evolutsionismi ĂŒldistamist bioloogiast teistesse valdkondadesse. Kolmas osa âPeirceâi evolutsionism: pidevuse ja ikoonilise abduktsiooni rollâ kĂ€sitleb lĂ€hemalt evolutsiooni ning sĂŒvendab Peirceâi lamarkismi interpretatsiooni, rĂ”hutades tema fĂŒsioloogilist tuletusteooria tĂ”lgendust. Lisaks sellele nĂ€idatakse, et taju ning sarnasus on kesksed sÀÀrase raamistiku toimimiseks.
Neljas osa (âAbduktsioon ja eksaptatsioonâ) kasutab mitmeid mĂ”isteidâasendatatvus, viga, kategooriate tajuâ,et teostada modelleerimist: eksaptatiivsed nĂ€htused vĂ”ivad jĂ€rgida tajuliselt tingitud kĂ€itumismuutusi, pĂ”hinedes sarnasustel maailma ĂŒksuste vahel, mida tĂ”lgendatakse ikooniliselt. Viies osa (âTehnoloogilise arengu ikooniline ja eksaptatiivne loogikaâ) rakendab eeltoodut tehnoloogilise arengu valdkonnale ja tĂ”estab, et kooptsioon on peamine mehhanism, millel baseeruvad nii abduktsioon kui eksaptatsioon.
Kuues osa (âVereimemise pĂ€ritolu: evolutsioonilise abduktsiooni juhtum?â) on juhtumianalĂŒĂŒs ning siin pakutakse vĂ€lja hĂŒpotees, et hematofaagia vĂ”is tegelikult vĂ€lja kujuneda abduktsiooni ja eksaptatsiooni integratsiooni lĂ€bi. Seitsmes (âLĂ”pumĂ€rkused juhtumianalĂŒĂŒsi kohtaâ) ja kaheksas (âĂldised jĂ€reldusedâ) osa selgitavad vastavalt spetsiifilisemaid ning ĂŒldisemaid doktoritöö tulemusi.The present dissertation attempts a modeling of the evolutionary phenomenon of exaptation according to C. S. Peirceâs theory of signs and inference. To accomplish this, the first section (âBefore exaptation: preadaptation and Chauncey Wrightâ) focuses on the meaning of the concept and reveals its vast historical background. Special attention is paid to C. Wrightâs principle of new uses of old powers and his intellectual relationship with Darwin.
The second section (âWright and Peirce on pragmatism and evolutionâ) investigates then similarities and differences between Wright and Peirce, especially insofar the epistemological status of Darwinâs theory, their different approach to Lamarckâs account and the issue of evolutionism as a generalization from biology to other fields are concerned. The third section (âPeirceâs evolutionism: the role of continuity and iconic abductionâ) further elaborates on evolution and deepens Peirceâs interpretation of Lamarckism by emphasizing his physiological translation of the theory of inference; besides, the role played by perception and similarity is considered central to the working of such framework.
The fourth section (âAbduction and exaptationâ) exploits several concepts â substitutability, mistake, categorical perception â to set up properly the modeling: exaptive phenomena can follow sensory-driven changes of behavior, based on similarities among world entities that are interpreted iconically. The fifth section (âThe iconic and exaptive logic of technological developmentâ) applies what previously achieved to the issue of technological development and corroborates the idea of cooption as the basic mechanism underlying both abduction and exaptation.
The sixth section (âThe origin of bloodsucking: a case of evolutionary abduction?â) is a case study and puts forward the hypothesis that hematophagy might actually have originated through a process integrating abduction and exaptation. The seventh (âConcluding remarks on the case studyâ) and eight sections (âGeneral conclusionsâ) explain accordingly specific and general findings of the thesis
A survey on hardware and software solutions for multimodal wearable assistive devices targeting the visually impaired
The market penetration of user-centric assistive devices has rapidly increased in the past decades. Growth in computational power, accessibility, and cognitive device capabilities have been accompanied by significant reductions in weight, size, and price, as a result of which mobile and wearable equipment are becoming part of our everyday life. In this context, a key focus of development has been on rehabilitation engineering and on developing assistive technologies targeting people with various disabilities, including hearing loss, visual impairments and others. Applications range from simple health monitoring such as sport activity trackers, through medical applications including sensory (e.g. hearing) aids and real-time monitoring of life functions, to task-oriented tools such as navigational devices for the blind. This paper provides an overview of recent trends in software and hardware-based signal processing relevant to the development of wearable assistive solutions
How touch and hearing influence visual processing in sensory substitution, synaesthesia and cross-modal correspondences
Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) systematically turn visual dimensions into patterns of tactile or auditory stimulation. After training, a user of these devices learns to translate these audio or tactile sensations back into a mental visual picture. Most previous SSDs translate greyscale images using intuitive cross-sensory mappings to help users learn the devices. However more recent SSDs have started to incorporate additional colour dimensions such as saturation and hue.
Chapter two examines how previous SSDs have translated the complexities of colour into hearing or touch. The chapter explores if colour is useful for SSD users, how SSD and veridical colour perception differ and how optimal cross-sensory mappings might be considered.
After long-term training, some blind users of SSDs report visual sensations from tactile or auditory stimulation. A related phenomena is that of synaesthesia, a condition where stimulation of one modality (i.e. touch) produces an automatic, consistent and vivid sensation in another modality (i.e. vision). Tactile-visual synaesthesia is an extremely rare variant that can shed light on how the tactile-visual system is altered when touch can elicit visual sensations. Chapter three reports a series of investigations on the tactile discrimination abilities and phenomenology of tactile-vision synaesthetes, alongside questionnaire data from synaesthetes unavailable for testing.
Chapter four introduces a new SSD to test if the presentation of colour information in sensory substitution affects object and colour discrimination.
Chapter five presents experiments on intuitive auditory-colour mappings across a wide variety of sounds. These findings are used to predict the reported colour hallucinations resulting from LSD use while listening to these sounds.
Chapter six uses a new sensory substitution device designed to test the utility of these intuitive sound-colour links for visual processing. These findings are discussed with reference to how cross-sensory links, LSD and synaesthesia can inform optimal SSD design for visual processing
The great ephemeral tattooed skin
The skin is always and already a series of planes which signify race, gender, age and such. Tattooing creates a new surface of potential significance upon the body. Tattooing can call into question concepts of volition in reference to the power to inscribe and define oneâs subjectivity through oneâs own skin, and the social defining of the subject. Skin is the involution or event between subject and object, will and cultural inscription, the social and the self. Feminism, particularly corporeal feminists, have attempted to think ways in which the female flesh may be recognized and self-defined without risking essentialism through reification of the meaning of âwomanâs bodyâ. Thinking the tattooed female body thus resonates with some of the risks and benefits feminism has found in theorizing a marginalized body. Using Deleuze, Guattari, Lyotard and other major influences on corporeal feminists this article explores ways in which significance is sought in skin and possible configurations of skin and world which challenge the desire to read the flesh as a legible incarnation of subjectivity
A Neuroeducation Description of a Paradigm Shift in Identification, Assessment, and Treatment of Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech with Supporting Evidence Through Interview and Artifact Analysis Provided by Speech Language Pathologists and Educators
The purpose of this study was twofold. First, the study explored the pertinent cognitive psychology, neuroscience, and language literature that surrounds the diagnosis and treatment of children with Suspected Childhood Apraxia of Speech (sCAS) with the intent of finding a translational neuroeducation approach to the treatment of sCAS. The results of this literature suggest that the surface problems-phonology, morphology, syntax- are mapped onto a semantic basis. This semantic basis is feature based and people with speech sound disorders are likely to use a visual semantic feature basis. So, the literature supports a shift to a new lens that aligns with the Neurosemantic Language Learning Theory (NLLT) and that could be the basis for intervention in sCAS. Second, while traditional treatment is aimed at the acoustic motor patterns of phonological processes, this study sought to uncover what professionals who have some neuroeducation training say they do when they treat children with sCAS. Interviews were conducted with sixteen Speech Language Pathologists (SLPs) and Educators currently using principles of neuroeducation to treat children with sCAS in order to uncover the methods that they report having used in interventions with this population. It was found that both SLPs and educators who use methods of assessment and intervention based on the NLLT reported positive outcomes for intelligibility and language function. The respondents also reported using intervention methods that align with the NLLT to a high degree. The interviews, along with artifacts provided by interview participants, served as confirmatory evidence to the findings from the literature review by demonstrating the reported change in children over time as a result of the intervention. Additional themes were found around definitions of sCAS, intervention methods and alignment of diagnostic criterion, philosophy and intervention methods among interviewees
Reading Bodies: Disability and American Literary History, 1789-1889
This dissertation brings the field of critical disability studies to bear on organizational paradigms of nineteenth-century American literature. âReading Bodiesâ intervenes in these fields with the claim that the book in a variety of formats, publications, and circulations acts as a disciplinary tool that seeks to arrange physical and mental characteristics and capacities into the category of disability. This project moves beyond examining representations of disability to demonstrate that the same social, cultural, and political forces that generated literary movements and outpourings â such as nationalism, displacement of Native peoples, slavery, and state-sanctioned violence â also generated material conditions of impairment that formal literary conventions sought to consolidate as âdisability.â Individuals and communities reading, writing, and responding to the genres of seduction, historical fiction, slave narrative, Civil War poetry, and childrenâs literature both deployed and challenged formal literary conventions to model or defy normative and deviant behaviors. The formal characteristics and aesthetic concerns of the field of American literature, I find, are products of larger social processes that both cause impairment and that communicate and mark constructions of disability into and onto reading and non-reading publics. as social and literary forces coalesced the category âdisability,â often those populations most vulnerable to impairment responded by challenging, resisting, or completely renovating the conventions and categories of textual and bodily behavior. In a variety of interactions with the book, nineteenth-century women, Native Americans, African Americans, wounded soldiers, and children offer alternative intersectional perspectives and possibilities for what it means to produce literature and for what it means to inhabit a body. Those works considered literary outliers both in their day and in contemporary critical assessments, such as Leonora Sansayâs Secret History (1808), the Life of Black Hawk (1833), and midcentury childrenâs books printed for sight-impaired readers, reveal the normative underpinnings of literary and bodily taxonomies
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