Micro-needle electro-tactile display

Haptic feedback is strongly demanded for high-precision robot-assisted surgery and teleoperation. The haptic feedback consists of force and tactile feedback, however tactile feedback has been little studied and the size and weight of the system poses challenges for practical applications. In this paper we propose a sheet-type wearable electro-tactile display which provides tactile sensations to the user as the feedback at a low voltage and power consumption. The display possesses needle-shaped electrodes, which can penetrate through the high-impedance stratum corneum. We developed the fabrication process and, as the first step, we investigated the tactile sensation that can be created to the fingertip by the display. Rough and smooth surfaces were successfully presented to the user. Then, we characterized the tactile display when used on the forearm, in particular, with respect to the spatial resolution. These tactile displays can be used to inform the user of the surface property of the parts of interest, such as tumor tissues, and to guide him in the manipulation of surgery robots.