Adapting a Soft 2.5D Actuated Shape Display for Rebound Tenderness Simulation and Training

Abstract

This paper presents our work towards adapting ForceForm, a 2.5D actuated surface, for use as a medical training apparatus for rebound tenderness, an application area which lacks prior research from computing researchers. Rebound tenderness is used by health practitioners to physically examine a patient's abdomen by applying and then releasing pressure with the hands. This paper demonstrates a novel technique to allow an actuated shape display to detect interactions caused by the user pressing down upon a soft surface by means of a Hall effect sensor. User evaluation of the interaction reveals that the further the user is required to press down into the surface, the more accurately the task is performed when visual cues are present, but the relationship between accuracy and depth is inverted when users are required to perform a depth recall task without the presence of visual cues. The results of this research support the continued development of ForceForm for rebound tenderness simulations and suggest that unexpected user performance patterns may occur when utilising soft interfaces.