Pub Date : 2024-07-29DOI: 10.1109/TOH.2024.3434975
Emma Treadway;Kristian Journet;Andrew Deering;Cora Lewis;Noelle Poquiz
Virtual damping is often employed to improve stability in virtual environments, but it has previously been found to bias perception of stiffness, with its effects differing when it is introduced locally within a wall/object or globally in both the wall and in freespace. Since many potential applications of haptic rendering involve not only comparisons between two environments, but also the ability to recognize rendered environments as belonging to different categories, it is important to understand the perceptual impacts of freespace and wall damping on stiffness classification ability. This study explores the effects of varying levels of freespace and wall damping on users' ability to classify virtual walls by their stiffness. Results indicate that freespace damping improves wall classification if the walls are damped, but will impair classification of undamped walls. These findings suggest that, in situations where users are expected to recognize and classify various stiffnesses, freespace damping can be a factor in narrowing or widening gaps in extended rate-hardness between softer and stiffer walls.
{"title":"Effects of Wall and Freespace Damping Levels on Virtual Wall Stiffness Classification","authors":"Emma Treadway;Kristian Journet;Andrew Deering;Cora Lewis;Noelle Poquiz","doi":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3434975","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3434975","url":null,"abstract":"Virtual damping is often employed to improve stability in virtual environments, but it has previously been found to bias perception of stiffness, with its effects differing when it is introduced locally within a wall/object or globally in both the wall and in freespace. Since many potential applications of haptic rendering involve not only comparisons between two environments, but also the ability to recognize rendered environments as belonging to different categories, it is important to understand the perceptual impacts of freespace and wall damping on stiffness classification ability. This study explores the effects of varying levels of freespace and wall damping on users' ability to classify virtual walls by their stiffness. Results indicate that freespace damping improves wall classification if the walls are damped, but will impair classification of undamped walls. These findings suggest that, in situations where users are expected to recognize and classify various stiffnesses, freespace damping can be a factor in narrowing or widening gaps in extended rate-hardness between softer and stiffer walls.","PeriodicalId":13215,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Haptics","volume":"17 4","pages":"794-805"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141792353","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-25DOI: 10.1109/TOH.2024.3433582
Maryam Etezad;Rajeev Joshi;Robert Alexander;Franceli L. Cibrian
Existing market-available refreshable Braille displays (RBDs) offer limited functionality at a high cost, hindering accessibility for individuals with blindness and visual impairment for teaching and learning purposes. This motivates us to develop a multi-functional, compact, and affordable RBD tailored for educational institutes to enhance teaching and learning experiences. We propose the development of BLISS (Braille Letters and Interactive Shape Screen), a novel RBD, that BLISS presents a unique configuration arrangement of Braille cells that accommodates up to six letters at a time and shapes by reusing the Braille pins. To determine the optimal specifications, including size, Braille cell spacing, and pin configuration, we fabricated and evaluated 3D-printed sets, mimicking how BLISS would display letters and shapes. We tested 36 variants of 3D-printed sets with 8 individuals with blindness and visual impairment and found that conventional Braille spacing is insufficient for accurately representing shapes. Hence, BLISS will introduce a novel design that uses a pin configuration to raise the extra pins to present shapes and lower them for Braille letters, providing dual-mode operation. Our findings show the potential of BLISS to display both Braille letters and shapes on the same refreshable display, offering a novel, compact, and cost-effective solution.
市场上现有的可刷新盲文显示器(RBD)功能有限,价格昂贵,阻碍了盲人和视障人士在教学中的使用。这促使我们为教育机构开发一种多功能、结构紧凑、价格低廉的可刷新盲文显示器,以提升教学和学习体验。我们建议开发 BLISS(盲文字母和交互式形状屏幕),这是一种新型的点字显示器,BLISS 采用独特的盲文单元配置排列,一次最多可容纳六个字母,并通过重复使用盲文针来容纳形状。为了确定最佳规格,包括尺寸、盲文单元间距和针脚配置,我们制作并评估了 3D 打印套件,模拟 BLISS 如何显示字母和形状。我们与 8 名盲人和视力受损者测试了 36 种不同的 3D 打印套件,发现传统盲文间距不足以准确显示形状。因此,BLISS 将采用一种新颖的设计,利用针脚配置,将额外的针脚升高以显示形状,将其降低以显示盲文字母,从而提供双模式操作。我们的研究结果表明,BLISS 具有在同一刷新显示器上同时显示盲文字母和形状的潜力,提供了一种新颖、紧凑和经济高效的解决方案。
{"title":"3D-Printed Models for Optimizing Tactile Braille & Shape Display","authors":"Maryam Etezad;Rajeev Joshi;Robert Alexander;Franceli L. Cibrian","doi":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3433582","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3433582","url":null,"abstract":"Existing market-available refreshable Braille displays (RBDs) offer limited functionality at a high cost, hindering accessibility for individuals with blindness and visual impairment for teaching and learning purposes. This motivates us to develop a multi-functional, compact, and affordable RBD tailored for educational institutes to enhance teaching and learning experiences. We propose the development of BLISS (Braille Letters and Interactive Shape Screen), a novel RBD, that BLISS presents a unique configuration arrangement of Braille cells that accommodates up to six letters at a time and shapes by reusing the Braille pins. To determine the optimal specifications, including size, Braille cell spacing, and pin configuration, we fabricated and evaluated 3D-printed sets, mimicking how BLISS would display letters and shapes. We tested 36 variants of 3D-printed sets with 8 individuals with blindness and visual impairment and found that conventional Braille spacing is insufficient for accurately representing shapes. Hence, BLISS will introduce a novel design that uses a pin configuration to raise the extra pins to present shapes and lower them for Braille letters, providing dual-mode operation. Our findings show the potential of BLISS to display both Braille letters and shapes on the same refreshable display, offering a novel, compact, and cost-effective solution.","PeriodicalId":13215,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Haptics","volume":"17 4","pages":"782-793"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141758428","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2024-07-23DOI: 10.1109/TOH.2024.3432835
Yang Ye;Pengxiang Xia;Fang Xu;Jing Du
Welding is an important operation in many industries, including construction and manufacturing, which requires extensive training and practices. Although welding simulators have been used to accommodate welding training, it is still challenging to enable novice trainees to effectively understand the kinesthetic experience of the expert in an egocentric manner, such as the proper way of force exertion in complex welding operations. This study implements a robot-assisted perceptual learning system to transfer the expert welders’ experience to trainees, including both the positional and force control actions. A human-subject experiment (N = 30) was performed to understand the motor skill acquisition process. Three conditions (control, robotic positional guidance with force visualization, and force perceptual learning with position visualization) were tested to evaluate the role of robotic guidance in welding motion control and force exertion. The results indicated various benefits related to task completion time and force control accuracy under the robotic guidance. The findings can inspire the design of future welding training systems enabled by external robotic systems.
{"title":"Enhance Kinesthetic Experience in Perceptual Learning for Welding Motor Skill Acquisition With Virtual Reality and Robot-Based Haptic Guidance","authors":"Yang Ye;Pengxiang Xia;Fang Xu;Jing Du","doi":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3432835","DOIUrl":"10.1109/TOH.2024.3432835","url":null,"abstract":"Welding is an important operation in many industries, including construction and manufacturing, which requires extensive training and practices. Although welding simulators have been used to accommodate welding training, it is still challenging to enable novice trainees to effectively understand the kinesthetic experience of the expert in an egocentric manner, such as the proper way of force exertion in complex welding operations. This study implements a robot-assisted perceptual learning system to transfer the expert welders’ experience to trainees, including both the positional and force control actions. A human-subject experiment (N = 30) was performed to understand the motor skill acquisition process. Three conditions (control, robotic positional guidance with force visualization, and force perceptual learning with position visualization) were tested to evaluate the role of robotic guidance in welding motion control and force exertion. The results indicated various benefits related to task completion time and force control accuracy under the robotic guidance. The findings can inspire the design of future welding training systems enabled by external robotic systems.","PeriodicalId":13215,"journal":{"name":"IEEE Transactions on Haptics","volume":"17 4","pages":"771-781"},"PeriodicalIF":2.4,"publicationDate":"2024-07-23","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"141751562","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":3,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The movement-related cortical potential (MRCP) is a low-frequency component of the electroencephalography (EEG) signal that originates from the motor cortex and surrounding cortical regions. As the MRCP reflects both the intention and execution of motor control, it has the potential to serve as a communication interface between patients and neurorehabilitation robots. In this study, we investigated the EEG signal recorded centered at the Cz electrode with the aim of decoding four rates of force development (RFD) during isometric contractions of the tibialis anterior muscle. The four levels of RFD were defined with respect to the maximum voluntary contraction (MVC) of the muscle as follows: Slow (20% MVC/s), Medium (30% MVC/s), Fast (60% MVC/s), and Ballistic (120% MVC/s). Three feature sets were assessed for describing the EEG traces in the classification process. These included: (i) MRCP Morphological Characteristics