Simultaneous vibrotactile feedback for multisensory upper limb prosthetics

This paper examines the ability of a test subject to correctly interpret an incoming sensory signal through a haptic interface. A vibrotactile armband was used to do this consisting of four vibration motors. The success of interpretation is compared as the number of sensory signals is increased to a maximum of four. These senses simulated in the tests are grip force, slippage, object temperature and object texture. The ability to discriminate between these four communication channels is evaluated and it is found that spatial discrimination is the most accurate. The results showed a decrease in discrimination accuracy as the number of channels increases. It was found that the system would be suitable for low resolution multi-sensory feedback. Future work should be done to investigate different haptic feedback communication protocols and training programs.