Design of a haptic environment to study the effect of loading on resting and action tremors

Abstract

We propose a novel design of haptic virtual environments for the quantification of both resting and action tremor. To quantify the resting tremor, a haptic virtual environment simulating the movement of hand is subjected to a variable resistance. The subject is asked to rest his/her hand in this environment and the velocity of hand motion (tremor) is captured by the haptic device. The variation of tremor parameters with virtual loading of the hand is estimated. To quantify action tremor, a dynamic virtual haptic environment is designed where a subject is asked to move a rigid body from a starting point to an end point along a specified path. During this manipulation, velocity of hand motion is captured by the haptic device to extract tremor using appropriate signal processing tools. The mass of the rigid body is increased to study the effect of loading on tremor.