Finger ring device for tactile sensing and human machine interface

We propose a new tactile device which measures multi-DOF vibrations exerted on the proximal phalanx. In this paper, two kinds of applications for the device are discussed. One application is "virtual buttons" assigned on a finger. The idea is to estimate the location of contact on the user\´s finger by utilizing the features of multi-DOF vibrations measured at the root of the finger. The other application is to use the finger ring device as a pointing device. Our strategy for obtaining the position of the finger from the output of the accelerometer is to integrate the acceleration only when the finger is being rubbed on the textured surface to avoid error accumulation. As an experiment for "virtual buttons", the accelerations were exerted by tapping the distal and middle phalanx and the features of the obtained accelerations were examined. A preliminary experiment for the pointing device is also discussed.