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Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications
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Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications

A special issue of Sensors (ISSN 1424-8220). This special issue belongs to the section "Electronic Sensors".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 September 2021) | Viewed by 26134

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Fernando Vidal-Verdú

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Department of Electronics, Institute of Biomedical Research of Málaga (IBIMA), University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: smart sensors; mechatronics instrumentation; tactile sensors; assistive technologies
Dr. Wael Bachta

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique (ISIR) UMR 7222, Sorbonne Université, CNRS Equipe Agathe UI, Inserm U1150, France
Interests: human postural control; touch and balance; assistive robotics
Dr. Andrés Trujillo-León

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Grupo PAI Electrónica para Instrumentación y Sistemas. Department of Electronics, University of Málaga, 29071 Málaga, Spain
Interests: tactile sensors; force sensors; haptics; rehabilitation; assistive technology and conditioning electronics

Special Issue Information

This Special Issue of Sensors is focused on the healthcare applications of sensors and actuators related to tactile sensing and display. Tactile sensors are used to assess the contact interface of users of assistive devices such as wheelchairs, prosthesis, orthosis or footwear. This provides information to improve ergonomics, evaluate balance or prevent sores. Force and tactile sensors are also commonly used in rehabilitation devices as a way of providing control feedback or information about gait phases and to implement touch sense in therapy robots and toys. They also allow the detection of tumors in tissues of different compliance. The tactile sensor can be attached to a tool and used to gather touch information, which is provided to the surgeon through a tactile display or haptic device, in a palpation procedure using Minimally Invasive Surgery. The same devices can be part of telepresence or sensory substitution systems for impaired people. Tactile displays allow visually impaired people to access information such as text or graphics through the sense of touch. Moreover, proper rendering achieves a wide range of tactile sensations such as different stiffness or texture, and tactile icons or tactons. Tactile stimulation is also used in rehabilitation, for instance, in the training of post-stroke patients to improve recovery of motor function.

Prof. Dr. Fernando Vidal-Verdú
Dr. Wael Bachta
Dr. Andrés Trujillo-León
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • tactile sensors
  • tactile displays
  • haptic devices
  • rehabilitation
  • human–robot interaction
  • healthcare
  • prosthetics
  • assistive technology.

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Published Papers (6 papers)

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Research

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14 pages, 2050 KiB  
Article
Analysis of Light Grip Influence on Standing Posture
by Angélina Bellicha, Andrés Trujillo-León, Fabien Vérité and Wael Bachta
Sensors 2021, 21(24), 8191; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21248191 - 8 Dec 2021
Cited by 2 | Viewed by 2249
Abstract
Upright posture control and gait are essential for achieving autonomous daily living activities. Postural control of upright posture relies, among others, on the integration of various sensory information. In this context, light touch (LT) and light grip (LG) of a stationary object provide [...] Read more.
Upright posture control and gait are essential for achieving autonomous daily living activities. Postural control of upright posture relies, among others, on the integration of various sensory information. In this context, light touch (LT) and light grip (LG) of a stationary object provide an additional haptic sensory input that helps to reduce postural sway. When LG was studied through the grasp of a cane, the sensory role of this assistive tool was often limited to a mediation interface. Its role was restricted to transmit the interaction forces between its tip and the ground to the hand. While most studies involve participants standing in an unstable way, such as the tandem stance, in this paper we study LG from a different perspective. We attached a handle of a cane firmly to a stationary support. Thus, we can focus on the role of the hand receptors in the LG mechanism. LG condition was ensured through the tactile information gathered by FSR sensors placed on the handle surface. Moreover, participants involved in our study stood in a usual way. The study involved twelve participants in an experiment composed of two conditions: standing relaxed while lightly gripping an equipped handle attached to the ground, and standing in the same way without gripping the handle. Spatial and frequency analyses confirmed the results reported in the literature with other approaches. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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16 pages, 3128 KiB  
Article
A Model for Estimating Tactile Sensation by Machine Learning Based on Vibration Information Obtained while Touching an Object
by Fumiya Ito and Kenjiro Takemura
Sensors 2021, 21(23), 7772; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21237772 - 23 Nov 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3468
Abstract
The tactile sensation is an important indicator of the added value of a product, and it is thus important to be able to evaluate this sensation quantitatively. Sensory evaluation is generally used to quantitatively evaluate the tactile sensation of an object. However, statistical [...] Read more.
The tactile sensation is an important indicator of the added value of a product, and it is thus important to be able to evaluate this sensation quantitatively. Sensory evaluation is generally used to quantitatively evaluate the tactile sensation of an object. However, statistical evaluation of the tactile sensation requires many participants and is, thus, time-consuming and costly. Therefore, tactile sensing technology, as opposed to sensory evaluation, is attracting attention. In establishing tactile sensing technology, it is necessary to estimate the tactile sensation of an object from information obtained by a tactile sensor. In this research, we developed a tactile sensor made of two-layer silicone rubber with two strain gauges in each layer and obtained vibration information as the sensor traced an object. We then extracted features from the vibration information using deep autoencoders, following the nature of feature extraction by neural firing due to vibrations perceived within human fingers. We also conducted sensory evaluation to obtain tactile scores for different words from participants. We finally developed a tactile sensation estimation model for each of the seven samples and evaluated the accuracy of estimating the tactile sensation of unknown samples. We demonstrated that the developed model can properly estimate the tactile sensation for at least four of the seven samples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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17 pages, 5707 KiB  
Article
Wearable Urban Mobility Assistive Device for Visually Impaired Pedestrians Using a Smartphone and a Tactile-Foot Interface
by Ricardo Tachiquin, Ramiro Velázquez, Carolina Del-Valle-Soto, Carlos A. Gutiérrez, Miguel Carrasco, Roberto De Fazio, Andrés Trujillo-León, Paolo Visconti and Fernando Vidal-Verdú
Sensors 2021, 21(16), 5274; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21165274 - 4 Aug 2021
Cited by 10 | Viewed by 5666
Abstract
This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and [...] Read more.
This paper reports on the progress of a wearable assistive technology (AT) device designed to enhance the independent, safe, and efficient mobility of blind and visually impaired pedestrians in outdoor environments. Such device exploits the smartphone’s positioning and computing capabilities to locate and guide users along urban settings. The necessary navigation instructions to reach a destination are encoded as vibrating patterns which are conveyed to the user via a foot-placed tactile interface. To determine the performance of the proposed AT device, two user experiments were conducted. The first one requested a group of 20 voluntary normally sighted subjects to recognize the feedback provided by the tactile-foot interface. The results showed recognition rates over 93%. The second experiment involved two blind voluntary subjects which were assisted to find target destinations along public urban pathways. Results show that the subjects successfully accomplished the task and suggest that blind and visually impaired pedestrians might find the AT device and its concept approach useful, friendly, fast to master, and easy to use. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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18 pages, 5067 KiB  
Article
Portable Interactive Pulse Tactile Recorder and Player System
by Tzu-Chieh Hsieh, Chien-Min Wu, Cheng-Chung Tsai, Wen-Chien Lo, Yu-Min Wang and Shana Smith
Sensors 2021, 21(13), 4339; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21134339 - 25 Jun 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2327
Abstract
Pulse palpation is an effective method for diagnosing arterial diseases. However, most pulse measurement devices use preconfigured pressures to collect pulse signals, and most pulse tactile simulators can only display standard or predefined pulse waveforms. Here, a portable interactive human pulse measurement and [...] Read more.
Pulse palpation is an effective method for diagnosing arterial diseases. However, most pulse measurement devices use preconfigured pressures to collect pulse signals, and most pulse tactile simulators can only display standard or predefined pulse waveforms. Here, a portable interactive human pulse measurement and reproduction system was developed that allows users to take arbitrary pulses and experience realistic simulated pulse tactile feedback in real time by using their natural pulse-taking behaviors. The system includes a pulse tactile recorder and a pulse tactile player. Pulse palpation forces and vibrations can be recorded and realistically replayed for later tactile exploration and examination. To retain subtle but vital pulse information, empirical mode decomposition was used to decompose pulse waveforms into several intrinsic mode functions. Artificial neural networks were then trained based on intrinsic mode functions to determine the relationship between the driving signals of the pulse tactile player and the resulting vibration waveforms. Experimental results indicate that the average normalized root mean square error and the average R-squared values between the reproduced and original pulses were 0.0654 and 0.958 respectively, which indicate that the system can reproduce high-fidelity pulse tactile vibrations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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17 pages, 1505 KiB  
Article
Development of a Human-Display Interface with Vibrotactile Feedback for Real-World Assistive Applications
by Kiduk Kim, Ji-Hoon Jeong, Jeong-Hyun Cho, Sunghyun Kim, Jeonggoo Kang, Jeha Ryu and Seong-Whan Lee
Sensors 2021, 21(2), 592; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21020592 - 15 Jan 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 3502
Abstract
It is important to operate devices with control panels and touch screens assisted by haptic feedback in mobile environments such as driving automobiles and electric power wheelchairs. A lot of consideration is needed to give accurate haptic feedback, especially, presenting clear touch feedback [...] Read more.
It is important to operate devices with control panels and touch screens assisted by haptic feedback in mobile environments such as driving automobiles and electric power wheelchairs. A lot of consideration is needed to give accurate haptic feedback, especially, presenting clear touch feedback to the elderly and people with reduced sensation is a very critical issue from healthcare and safety perspectives. In this study, we aimed to identify the perceptual characteristics for the frequency and direction of haptic vibration on the touch screen with vehicle-driving vibration and to propose an efficient haptic system based on these characteristics. As a result, we demonstrated that the detection threshold shift decreased at frequencies above 210 Hz due to the contact pressure during active touch, but the detection threshold shift increased at below 210 Hz. We found that the detection thresholds were 0.30–0.45 gpeak with similar sensitivity in the 80–270 Hz range. The haptic system implemented by reflecting the experimental results achieved characteristics suitable for use scenarios in automobiles. Ultimately, it could provide practical guidelines for the development of touch screens to give accurate touch feedback in the real-world environment. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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Review

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23 pages, 18271 KiB  
Review
Audio-Tactile Rendering: A Review on Technology and Methods to Convey Musical Information through the Sense of Touch
by Byron Remache-Vinueza, Andrés Trujillo-León, Mireya Zapata, Fabián Sarmiento-Ortiz and Fernando Vidal-Verdú
Sensors 2021, 21(19), 6575; https://doi.org/10.3390/s21196575 - 30 Sep 2021
Cited by 33 | Viewed by 7726
Abstract
Tactile rendering has been implemented in digital musical instruments (DMIs) to offer the musician haptic feedback that enhances his/her music playing experience. Recently, this implementation has expanded to the development of sensory substitution systems known as haptic music players (HMPs) to give the [...] Read more.
Tactile rendering has been implemented in digital musical instruments (DMIs) to offer the musician haptic feedback that enhances his/her music playing experience. Recently, this implementation has expanded to the development of sensory substitution systems known as haptic music players (HMPs) to give the opportunity of experiencing music through touch to the hearing impaired. These devices may also be conceived as vibrotactile music players to enrich music listening activities. In this review, technology and methods to render musical information by means of vibrotactile stimuli are systematically studied. The methodology used to find out relevant literature is first outlined, and a preliminary classification of musical haptics is proposed. A comparison between different technologies and methods for vibrotactile rendering is performed to later organize the information according to the type of HMP. Limitations and advantages are highlighted to find out opportunities for future research. Likewise, methods for music audio-tactile rendering (ATR) are analyzed and, finally, strategies to compose for the sense of touch are summarized. This review is intended for researchers in the fields of haptics, assistive technologies, music, psychology, and human–computer interaction as well as artists that may make use of it as a reference to develop upcoming research on HMPs and ATR. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Tactile Sensing and Rendering for Healthcare Applications)
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