指先力触覚の身体異部位への転移に関する研究

電気通信大学202

SwarmCloak: Landing of a Swarm of Nano-Quadrotors on Human Arms

We propose a novel system SwarmCloak for landing of a fleet of four flying robots on the human arms using light-sensitive landing pads with vibrotactile feedback. We developed two types of wearable tactile displays with vibromotors which are activated by the light emitted from the LED array at the bottom of quadcopters. In a user study, participants were asked to adjust the position of the arms to land up to two drones, having only visual feedback, only tactile feedback or visual-tactile feedback. The experiment revealed that when the number of drones increases, tactile feedback plays a more important role in accurate landing and operator's convenience. An important finding is that the best landing performance is achieved with the combination of tactile and visual feedback. The proposed technology could have a strong impact on the human-swarm interaction, providing a new level of intuitiveness and engagement into the swarm deployment just right from the skin surface.Comment: ACM Siggraph Asia 2019 conference (Emerging Technologies section). Best Demo Award by committee member

HARVEST: High-Resolution Haptic Vest and Fingertip Sensing Glove That Transfers Tactile Sensation of Fingers to the Back

Human fingertips are densely populated with tactile receptors and are hence incredibly sensitive. However, wearing gloves on the fingers drastically reduces the tactile information available to the fingertips, such as the texture and shape of the object, and makes it difficult to perform dexterous work. As a solution, in this study, we developed a high-resolution haptic vest that transfers the tactile sensation of the fingertips to the back. The haptic vest contains 80 voice-coil type vibrators which are located at each of the two discrimination thresholds on the back and can be driven independently. The tactile sensation of the fingertips is transferred to the back using the developed haptic vest in combination with a sensing glove that can detect the pressure distribution on the finger skin at up to 100 points. Different experiments were conducted to validate the performance of the proposed haptic vest and sensing gloves. The use of the haptic vest and the sensing glove enabled the user to perceive the shape of a planar object more accurately when compared to the case where the user wore only the glove

Insulin: a critical autoantigen and potential therapeutic agent in Type 1 diabetes

Insulin is a polypeptide hormone secreted by pancreatic beta-cells and is critical for glucose homeostasis. Abnormalities in insulin secretion result in various forms of diabetes. Type 1A diabetes is an autoimmune form in which insulin has been identified as a critical autoantigen. Recent studies have identified genetic determinants of insulin-specific autoimmune responses and insulin epitopes targeted by autoreactive T lymphocytes. The study of insulin as an autoantigen has also led to discoveries about basic mechanisms of immunological tolerance and autoimmunity. Experimental and clinical evidence suggests that insulin and insulin-derived peptides may delay and perhaps prevent the development of diabetes. Further clinical trials may identify effective treatment modalities for inhibiting diabetogenic autoimmunity and preventing disease development