Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Sorbonne Université, 4 place Jussieu, 75005, Paris, France.
Behav Res Methods. 2021 Aug;53(4):1469-1477. doi: 10.3758/s13428-020-01492-3. Epub 2020 Nov 17.
Skin-to-skin touch is an essential form of tactile interaction, yet there is no known method to quantify how we touch our own skin or someone else's skin. Skin-to-skin touch is particularly challenging to measure objectively, since interposing an instrumented sheet, no matter how thin and flexible, between the interacting skins is not an option. To fill this gap, we explored a technique that takes advantage of the propagation of vibrations from the locus of touch to pick up a signal that contains information about skin-to-skin tactile interactions. These "tactile waves" were measured by an accelerometer sensor placed on the touching finger. Applied pressure and speed had a direct influence on measured signal power when the target of touch was the self or another person. The measurements were insensitive to changes in the location of the sensor relative to the target. Our study suggests that this method has potential for probing behaviour during skin-to-skin tactile interactions and could be a valuable technique to study social touch, self-touch, and motor control. The method is non-invasive, easy to commission, inexpensive, and robust.
皮肤接触是一种基本的触觉交互形式，但目前还没有已知的方法来量化我们触摸自己的皮肤或他人的皮肤的方式。皮肤接触特别难以客观测量，因为在相互作用的皮肤之间插入一个仪器化的薄片，无论多么薄和灵活，都不是一个可行的选择。为了填补这一空白，我们探索了一种利用振动从触摸点传播的技术，以拾取包含有关皮肤接触触觉相互作用信息的信号。这些“触觉波”通过放置在触摸手指上的加速度计传感器进行测量。当触摸的目标是自己或他人时，施加的压力和速度对测量信号的功率有直接影响。传感器相对于目标的位置变化对测量结果没有影响。我们的研究表明，这种方法有可能用于探测皮肤接触触觉交互过程中的行为，并且可能是研究社交触摸、自我触摸和运动控制的一种有价值的技术。该方法是非侵入性的、易于实施的、成本低廉且稳健。
