Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on two research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant G-16526)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-03)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on two research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 PO1 GM-14940-02)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U. S. Navy, and U. S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E

Human Machine Interfaces for Teleoperators and Virtual Environments

In Mar. 1990, a meeting organized around the general theme of teleoperation research into virtual environment display technology was conducted. This is a collection of conference-related fragments that will give a glimpse of the potential of the following fields and how they interplay: sensorimotor performance; human-machine interfaces; teleoperation; virtual environments; performance measurement and evaluation methods; and design principles and predictive models

Manual discrimination of force

Optimal design of human-machine interfaces for teleoperators and virtual-environment systems which involve the tactual and kinesthetic modalities requires knowledge of the human's resolving power in these modalities. The resolution of the interface should be appropriately matched to that of the human operator. We report some preliminary results on the ability of the human hand to distinguish small differences in force under a variety of conditions. Experiments were conducted on force discrimination with the thumb pushing an interface that exerts a constant force over the pushing distance and the index finger pressing against a fixed support. The dependence of the sensitivity index d' on force increment can be fit by a straight line through the origin and the just-noticeable difference (JND) in force can thus be described by the inverse of the slope of this line. The receiver operating characteristic (ROC) was measured by varying the a priori probabilities of the two alternatives, reference force and reference force plus an increment, in one-interval, two-alternative, forced-choice experiments. When plotted on normal deviate coordinates, the ROC's were roughly straight lines of unit slope, thus supporting the assumption of equal-variance normal distributions and the use of the conventional d' measure. The JND was roughly 6-8 percent for reference force ranging from 2.5 to 10 newtons, pushing distance from 5 to 30 mm, and initial finger-span from 45 to 125 mm. Also, the JND remained the same when the subjects were instructed to change the average speed of pushing from 23 to 153 mm/sec. The pushing was terminated by reaching either a wall or a well, and the JND's were essentially the same in both cases

Communication Biophysics

Contains reports on five research projects.National Science Foundation (Grant GP-2495)National Institutes of Health (Grant MH-04737-04)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496

Auditory Psychophysics and Aids for the Deaf

Contains table of contents for Section 2 and list of eight research projects, including sponsors and principal investigators for each.National Science Foundation (Grant BNS 84-11392)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS10916)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS12846)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 R01 NS14902)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS 84-17817)National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 R01 NS21322)National Institutes of Health (Grant P01 NS23734)National Science Foundation (Grant DMC 83-32460

Sensory Communication

Contains list of research project split into seven sections, listing researchers and grants.National Science Foundation (Grant BNS 84-11392)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS10916)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS12846)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 RO1 NS14902)National Science Foundation (Grant BNS 84-17817)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 RO1 NS21322)National Institutes of Health (Grant 1 P01 NS23734)National Science Foundation (Grant DMC 83-32460

Auditory Psychophysics and Aids for the Deaf

Contains table of contents for Section 2, an introduction and list of sponsors and principal investigators for six research projects.National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 NS10916National Institutes of Health Grant 5 R01 NS14092National Institutes of Health Grant 2 R01 NS21322National Institutes of Health Grant 1 P01 NS23734National Science Foundation Grant DMC 83-3246

Communications Biophysics

Contains reports on six research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 GM-14940-01)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 28-043-AMC-02536(E)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 ROl NB-05462-03

Communications Biophysics

Contains research objectives, summary of six research projects and reports on three research projects.National Institutes of Health (Grant 2 P01 MH-04737-06)Joint Services Electronics Programs (U. S. Army, U.S. Navy, and U.S. Air Force) under Contract DA 36-039-AMC-03200(E)National Science Foundation (Grant GK-835)National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Grant NsG-496)National Institutes of Health (Grant 5 ROI NB-05462-03