Investigating tactile perception by friction induced vibrations”, Analysis and tactile discrimination of isotropic surfaces : mimicking the texture vibrations
Résumé
The sense of touch is one of the most complex and least understood of the 5 senses. Exploring a surface, mechanical stimuli such as contact forces, induced vibrations, heat flows are generated. Mechanical stimuli are detected by mechanoreceptors in the skin, which transmit them in the form of electrical signals to the central nervous system, where they are decoded by the brain. Tribological analyses are underway to understand the link between surface topography, mechanical stimuli and tactile perception of surfaces. In particular, one line of research [1- 4] is focusing on the study of Friction-Induced Vibrations (FIV), which are among the most important mechanical stimuli in the discrimination of fine surface textures. Analyses of FIV are then conducted in both active touch and passive touch conditions.
Once FIV recorded and analyzed, a tactile device that allows to return and mimic the FIV, previously measured during the exploration of the sample surfaces, has been specially developed. Different types of textures (periodic, isotropic...) were analyzed and simulated using the tactile device. The results obtained by discrimination campaigns highlighted the main role of FIV and their spectral features in the perception and discrimination of textures.