Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction, The University of Nevada, Las Vegas, NV 89154, USA.
Sensors (Basel). 2018 Apr 14;18(4):1200. doi: 10.3390/s18041200.
At a construction site, workers mainly rely on two senses, which are sight and sound, in order to perceive their physical surroundings. However, they are often hindered by the nature of most construction sites, which are usually dynamic, loud, and complicated. To overcome these challenges, this research explored a method using an embedded sensory system that might offer construction workers an artificial sensing ability to better perceive their surroundings. This study identified three parameters (i.e., intensity, signal length, and delay between consecutive pulses) needed for tactile-based signals for the construction workers to communicate quickly. We developed a prototype system based on these parameters, conducted experimental studies to quantify and validate the sensitivity of the parameters for quick communication, and analyzed test data to reveal what was added by this method in order to perceive information from the tactile signals. The findings disclosed that the parameters of tactile-based signals and their distinguishable ranges could be perceived in a short amount of time (i.e., a fraction of a second). Further experimentation demonstrated the capability of the identified unit signals combined with a signal mapping technique to effectively deliver simple information to individuals and offer an additional sense of awareness to the surroundings. The findings of this study could serve as a basis for future research in exploring advanced tactile-based messages to overcome challenges in environments for which communication is a struggle.
在建筑工地，工人主要依靠视觉和听觉这两种感官来感知周围的物理环境。然而，他们经常受到大多数建筑工地性质的阻碍，这些建筑工地通常是动态的、嘈杂的和复杂的。为了克服这些挑战，本研究探索了一种使用嵌入式传感系统的方法，该系统可能为建筑工人提供一种人工感知能力，以更好地感知周围环境。本研究确定了触觉信号中用于快速通信的三个参数（即强度、信号长度和连续脉冲之间的延迟）。我们基于这些参数开发了一个原型系统，进行了实验研究以量化和验证参数对快速通信的灵敏度，并分析了测试数据以揭示这种方法在感知触觉信号信息方面增加了什么。研究结果表明，触觉信号的参数及其可区分范围可以在短时间内（即几分之一秒）感知到。进一步的实验表明，识别出的单元信号与信号映射技术相结合，能够有效地将简单信息传递给个人，并为周围环境提供额外的感知能力。本研究的结果可以为未来探索先进的基于触觉的信息传递方法以克服通信困难的环境中的挑战提供基础。
