Abstract
The Bogus Finger is a remote-controllable tool for simulating vertical pressing forces of various magnitude as exerted by a human finger. Its main application is the characterization of haptic devices under realistic active touch conditions. The device is released as an open-source hardware and software DIY project that can be easily built using off-the-shelf components. We report the characterization of the quasi-static properties of the device, and validate its dynamic response to pressing on a vibrating surface by comparison with human fingers. The present prototype configuration accurately reproduces the mechanical impedance of the human finger in the frequency range 200-400 Hz.
Highlights
Finger pressing is a key gesture in our interaction with everyday devices
Active touch has recently become a hot topic in haptics research, with important application outcomes reaching the consumer level, in parallel stimulating studies on the psychophysics, physiology and mechanics of touch in interactive contexts [1], [2]
When conducting experiments on active touch or designing and characterizing haptic devices, several factors would motivate the use of an automated tool modeling the effect of a pressing finger while offering accurate vibration measurements
Summary
Finger pressing is a key gesture in our interaction with everyday devices. More in general, active touch has recently become a hot topic in haptics research, with important application outcomes reaching the consumer level (e.g., more and more sophisticated haptic sensing and actuation in mobile devices), in parallel stimulating studies on the psychophysics, physiology and mechanics of touch in interactive contexts [1], [2]. When conducting experiments on active touch or designing and characterizing haptic devices, several factors would motivate the use of an automated tool modeling the effect of a pressing finger while offering accurate vibration measurements. A robotic tool that accurately simulates the mechanical characteristics of a pressing finger, paired with an accelerometer, would make it possible to obtain repeatable and stable reference measurements of the average vibratory or static response to finger interaction. Fingertips behave elastically up to about 100 Hz, while damping dominates up to 1 kHz; inertial contributions, instead, are negligible up to 500 Hz [7] Those mechanical properties have been modeled through multiple measurements with humans, highlighting large variance among subjects even under controlled conditions [5], [11], [7]. The device was fixed to a vibrationisolation table (CleanBench TMC)
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