Touch Feeling Research Articles

“Seeing” and “feeling” architecture: how bodily self-consciousness alters architectonic experience and affects the perception of interiors

Over the centuries architectural theory evolved several notions of embodiment, proposing in the nineteenth and twentieth century that architectonic experience is related to physiological responses of the observer. Recent advances in the cognitive neuroscience of embodiment (or bodily self-consciousness) enable empirical studies of architectonic embodiment. Here, we investigated how architecture modulates bodily self-consciousness by adapting a video-based virtual reality (VR) setup previously used to investigate visuo-tactile mechanisms of bodily self-consciousness. While standing in two different interiors, participants were filmed from behind and watched their own virtual body online on a head-mounted display (HMD). Visuo-tactile strokes were applied in synchronous or asynchronous mode to the participants and their virtual body. Two interiors were simulated in the laboratory by placing the sidewalls either far or near from the participants, generating a large and narrow room. We tested if bodily self-consciousness was differently modulated when participants were exposed to both rooms and whether these changes depend on visuo-tactile stimulation. We measured illusory touch, self-identification, and performed length estimations. Our data show that synchronous stroking of the physical and the virtual body induces illusory touch and self-identification with the virtual body, independent of room-size. Moreover, in the narrow room we observed weak feelings of illusory touch with the sidewalls and of approaching walls. These subjective changes were complemented by a stroking-dependent modulation of length estimation only in the narrow room with participants judging the room-size more accurately during conditions of illusory self-identification. We discuss our findings and previous notions of architectonic embodiment in the context of the cognitive neuroscience of bodily self-consciousness and propose an empirical framework grounded in architecture, cognitive neuroscience, and VR.

Virtual prototyping of mechanical systems with tool mediated haptic feedback

Haptic feedback usually involves two types of stimulation forces: forces that address the touch sense and forces that address the kinesthetic perception. Touch forces have a low intensity and a complex structure since they reflect contact phenomena where friction plays an important role. Therefore, they are quite difficult to simulate. Virtual prototyping with haptic feedback should ideally involve both types of forces, but the integration of the touch feeling makes the simulator very complex. In this paper, we present a novel concept for virtual prototyping in which the touch interaction is separated from the kinesthetic force feedback. This is possible using a prototype that has a real part undertaking the touch interaction and a virtual part that simulate feedback for the kinesthetic forces. In this way, a full haptic interaction with the virtual prototype is established by means of a device that provides a realistic simulation of the product. In order to illustrate the concept, several experiments have been carried out for the case of specific subsystems of a car, which are particularly involved in the driver---car interaction: steering system, clutch pedal and the gearshift. A user test is described in the last part as well as the conclusions of the research.

A Neural Link Between Feeling and Hearing

Hearing and feeling both rely upon the transduction of physical events into frequency-based neural codes, suggesting that the auditory system may be intimately related to the somatosensory system. Here, we provide evidence that the neural substrates for audition and somatosensation are anatomically linked. Using diffusion tensor imaging with both deterministic and probabilistic tractography to measure white matter connectivity, we show that there are extensive ipsilateral connections between the primary auditory cortex and the primary and secondary somatosensory regions in the human cerebral cortex. We further show that these cross-modal connections are exaggerated between the auditory and secondary somatosensory cortex in the lesioned hemisphere of a patient (SR) with acquired auditory-tactile synesthesia, in whom sounds alone produce bodily sensations. These results provide an anatomical basis for multisensory interactions between audition and somatosensation and suggest that cross-talk between these regions may explain why some sounds, such as nails screeching down a chalkboard or an audible mosquito, can induce feelings of touch, especially on the contralesional body surface of patient SR.

Factor Analysis of the Eight Kinds of Hot Wet Feeling in Subjective Comfort

This paper chooses 7 kinds of fabrics and made stretch tight pants on the subjective comfort experiment. Gotten the sports time 0, 15, 30 minutes, 30 minutes of subjective feeling, the results showed that at the static, the feeling of stretch tight pants is mainly static comprehensive intimacy and touch feeling in the sensory threshold region. At Sports time to 15 minutes, subjective feeling of stretch tight pants is mainly weight feeling and sticky feeling in the sensory threshold region. At Sports time to 30 minutes, subjective feeling of stretch tight pants is mainly burns feeling, weight feeling and sticky feeling in the sensory threshold region.

“Old Father, Old Artificer”: Queering Suspicion in Alison Bechdel’s <i>Fun Home</i>

“Old Father, Old Artificer”: Queering Suspicion in Alison Bechdel’s <i>Fun Home</i>

Gay Pride and Its Queer Discontents: ACT UP and the Political Deployment of Affect

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Acknowledgments She would like to offer thanks to Charles E. Morris III for the opportunity to participate in this forum and for his always insightful engagement with her work, and to the Maine writing retreat participants who provided feedback on early portions of this essay Notes 1. Deborah B. Gould, Moving Politics: Emotion and ACT UP's Fight against AIDS (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 10. 2. Ann Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings: Trauma, Sexuality, and Lesbian Public Cultures (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 167, 157. 3. David M. Halperin and Valerie Traub, “Beyond Gay Pride,” in Gay Shame, ed. David M. Halperin and Valerie Traub (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2009), 3. 4. Halperin and Traub, “Beyond Gay Pride,” 3. 5. Gould, Moving Politics, 70. 6. Gould, Moving Politics, 71–2. 7. Jasbir K. Puar, Terrorist Assemblages: Homonationalism in Queer Times (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 2. 8. Gould, Moving Politics, 88–9. 9. Debra Levine, “Demonstration of Care: The ACT UP Oral Histories on Video,” GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian and Gay Studies 16, no. 3 (2010): 442. 10. Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings, 170. 11. Cvetkovich, An Archive of Feelings, 173. 12. Michael Hardt, “Foreword: What Affects Are Good For,” in The Affective Turn: Theorizing the Social, ed. Patricia Ticineto Clough with Jean Halley (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), ix; Gregory J. Seigworth and Melissa Gregg, The Affect Theory Reader (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2010), 12–13. 13. Gould, Moving Politics, 23. 14. Sally R. Munt, Queer Attachments: The Cultural Politics of Shame (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2007), 103, 203, 216. 15. Jennifer Moon, “Gay Shame and the Politics of Identity,” in Gay Shame, 360. 16. “GAY SHAME Seeks Nominations for Annual Shame Awards,” Gay Shame San Francisco, http://www.gayshamesf.org/awards2003.html. 17. Halperin and Traub, “Beyond Gay Pride,” 9; Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Touching Feeling: Affect, Pedagogy, Performativity (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2003), 37. 18. Douglas Crimp, “Mario Montez, for Shame,” in Gay Shame, 72; Kathryn Bond Stockton, Beautiful Bottom, Beautiful Shame: Where “Black” Meets “Queer” (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2006), 27. 19. For a particularly pointed criticism of the kinds of privilege enacted in discussions of shame, see: Judith Halberstam, “Shame and White Gay Masculinity,” Social Text 23, no. 3–4 (2005): 219–233. 20. Halperin and Traub, “Beyond Gay Pride,” 25. 21. Munt, Queer Attachments, 87, 102. 22. Heather Love, Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2007), 14. 23. Love, Feeling Backward, 19. Additional informationNotes on contributorsErin J. RandErin J. Rand is Assistant Professor of Communication and Rhetorical Studies at Syracuse University

A neural link between feeling and hearing

Hearing and feeling both rely upon the transduction of physical events into frequency-based neural codes, suggesting that the auditory system may be intimately related to the somatosensory system. In this study, we provide evidence that the neural substrates for audition and somatosensation are anatomically linked. Using diffusion tensor imaging with both deterministic and probabilistic tractography to measure white matter connectivity, we show that there are extensive connections between the primary auditory cortex and the primary and secondary somatosensory regions in human cerebral cortex. We further show that these cross-connections are diminished between auditory and primary somatosensory cortex and exaggerated between auditory and secondary somatosensory cortex in the lesioned hemisphere of a patient (SR) with acquired auditory-tactile synesthesia, in whom sounds alone produce bodily sensations. These results provide an anatomical basis for multisensory interactions between audition and somatosensation and suggest that cross-talk between these regions may explain why some sounds, such as nails screeching down a chalkboard or an audible mosquito, can induce feelings of touch, especially on the left half of patient SR.

Mechanical allodynia generated by stimulation of unmyelinated afferent nerve fibres

Mechanical allodynia generated by stimulation of unmyelinated afferent nerve fibres

Is synaesthesia one condition or many? A large‐scale analysis reveals subgroups

Synaesthesia is a broadly defined neural phenomenon in which stimulation of a sense or concept triggers a second perception not normally associated with the stimulus. For example, letters or numbers may trigger a colour experience, sounds may trigger a taste sensation, or tastes may trigger a feeling of touch. Dozens of forms of synaesthesia have been reported, but the relationship between the different forms has not been studied: is someone with a particular form of synaesthesia likely to possess other types? If so, which ones? As an inroad to illuminating underlying mechanisms, we here examine which different synaesthesia types tend to co-occur. We analyzed reports of the forms of synaesthesia experienced by 19,133 participants who completed the Synaesthesia Battery (Eagleman, Kagan, Nelson, Sagaram, & Sarma, 2007), using correlation analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and multidimensional scaling (MDS). Our analyses converged on the finding of five distinct groupings of synaesthesia forms. We label these coloured sequence synaesthesias (CSSs), coloured music synaesthesias, non-visual sequela synaesthesias, spatial sequence synaesthesia (SSS), and coloured sensation synaesthesias. Collectively, our findings reveal that synaesthesia is an umbrella term that encompasses several distinct groups with independent probabilities of expression, and this may in turn suggest distinct underlying mechanisms and the possibility of different genetic bases.

웹기반 디지털 콘텐츠에서의 시각적 촉각성 연구

시각적 촉각성이란 시각을 통하여 촉각을 느끼는 것을 말한다. 정확히 말해서 몸이 아니라 눈이, 그리고 대상을 느끼는 것이 아니라 대상을 봄으로써 촉각적 체험과 유사한 체험을 하는 것을 말한다. 한마디로 말해서 유사 촉각성이다. 이러한 시각적 촉각성은 현실과 같은 경험은 물론 전혀 새로운 형태의 경험을 제공하기도 한다. 웹을 이용한 시각적 촉각성을 기반으로 하는 사용자 경험 요소는 디자이너와 사용자 사이의 더 풍부한 커뮤니케이션을 가져온다. 본 논문에서는 시각적 촉각성의 개념을 정리하고, 그 특성과 활용방식을 알아보고자 한다. 시각적 촉각성은 사용자의 감성을 자극하는 콘텐츠의 제작에 적절히 활용될 수 있는 방식이다. 시각적 촉각성을 활용하여 어린이를 대상으로 하는 웹 에듀테인먼트 콘텐츠나 웹사이트를 개발한다면 그 콘텐츠가 목표로 하는 문제해결 능력과 창의력 학습효과를 높이는 데에 많은 도움이 되며, 사이트에 몰입 시간을 늘려 재방문과 머무는 시간이 늘어난다. 본 논문은 시각적 촉각성에 대한 사용자 관찰 실험을 통해서 다양한 콘텐츠 유형에서의 시각적 촉각성을 사용하여 학습 하였을 때 다른 방법보다 효과적일 것이다. 라는 가설을 앞세워 이를 검증하는 실험을 설계하였다. Visual tactility implies feelings of touch through sight. To be exact, the eyes are doing the touch rather than the body and the subject concerned will experience the sensation of touch by looking at an object similar to that of physical touch. This is quasi tactility to put it simply and it can be defined as to touch with the eyes. This can not only provide opportunities to experience something close to reality but also another completely different form of modern experience. Experiencing visual tactility through the use of the web permits lavish communication between the user and the designer. This paper has reorganize the concept of visual tactility, characteristic and way to use in digital contents. Visual tactility stimulates the users' emotion as such. If it was to be utilized to develop edutainment contents or web sites will foster children's capability to develope problem solving skills and raise efficiency in creative learning, and prolong the period of concentration in order to encourage revisits to the place and extend the time of stay.

Development of tactile sensor for measuring hair touch feeling

In this paper, a tactile sensor system for evaluation of human hair under dry and wet conditions is developed. The polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) film is used as the sensory material. The sensor consists of an acrylic base, a silicone rubber, a PVDF film. A surface projection is put on the PVDF film as the contacting part. The sensor output is obtained by contacting and scanning objects. Panels imitating the physical and chemical properties of human hair surface are fabricated and used as measuring objects for stable measurement. Panels cleaned down with several kinds of hair-care products are measured by the sensor. By comparison between the sensor output and human sensory evaluation, it was confirmed that the sensor outputs have a good correlation with human sensory evaluation. It was found that the sensor system is available for monitoring hair conditions in both dry and wet conditions.

Virtual Surface Characteristics of a Tactile Display Using Magneto-Rheological Fluids

Virtual surface characteristics of tactile displays are investigated to characterize the feeling of human touch for a haptic interface application. In order to represent the tactile feeling, a prototype tactile display incorporating Magneto-Rheological (MR) fluid has been developed. Tactile display devices simulate the finger’s skin to feel the sensations of contact such as compliance, friction, and topography of the surface. Thus, the tactile display can provide information on the surface of an organic tissue to the surgeon in virtual reality. In order to investigate the compliance feeling of a human finger’s touch, normal force responses of a tactile display under various magnetic fields have been assessed. Also, shearing friction force responses of the tactile display are investigated to simulate the action of finger dragging on the surface. Moreover, different matrix arrays of magnetic poles are applied to form the virtual surface topography. From the results, different tactile feelings are observed according to the applied magnetic field strength as well as the arrays of magnetic poles combinations. This research presents a smart tactile display technology for virtual surfaces.

表面塗装が本革ステアリングホイールの「握り心地」評価に及ぼす影響

We investigated how the surface coating of leathers influenced ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’ of leather steering wheels. Four leather sheets coated by different urethane coating materials and four steering wheels covered by these leathers were used as samples. Both ‘touch feeling’ of the leather sheets and ‘grip comfort’ of the steering wheels were evaluated by the paired comparison method. Then each mean preference score of ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’ was examined by the principal component analysis. From the result, it was found that ‘moisture’ and ‘smoothness’ were identified as principal factors of ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’. And the physical properties (i.e. compression, friction, surface roughness, and q-max) of the leather sheets were measured. The relationship between the subjective evaluation (i.e. ‘touch feeling’ and ‘grip comfort’) and these measured physical properties were investigated. From the result, it was found that ‘moisture’ was correlated significantly with ‘MIU/MMD’ (MIU: mean coefficient of friction, MMD: mean deviation of MIU) and ‘dry’ was correlated significantly with ‘Ra’ (arithmetic mean deviation of the roughness profile). The measuring method of the physical properties was viable approach for the quantitative evaluation of ‘grip comfort’.

Testing Haptic Sensations for Spinal Anesthesia

Having identified key determinants of teaching and learning spinal anesthesia, it was necessary to characterize and render the haptic sensations (feeling of touch) associated with needle insertion in the lower back. The approach used is to match recreated sensations (eg, "pop" through skin or dura mater) with experts' perceptions of the equivalent clinical events. The study was performed using a haptic device (Phantom Desktop) that simulated the tactile elements of predefined clinical events. Twenty-four experts (anesthetists) were invited to assess rendered versions of 3 basic sensations, which typically occur during the performance of spinal anesthesia with a 25-gauge pencil point needle: (1) touching different surfaces (skin, bone), (2) the "pop" sensations (skin, dura mater), and (3) the sensations associated with advancement of the spinal needle through particular tissues (subcutaneous tissue, ligaments, intrathecal space). The perceptions of each participant were recorded. The relationships between each rendered sensation and the corresponding participant's perception was modeled using standard random effects techniques. Experts seem to possess a specific haptic perception regarding most sensations. The coefficient of variation was less than 0.50 for all sensations with the exception of intrathecal space. However, there is considerable within-rater variation when experts are presented with the same haptic rendering on more than one occasion for bone surface, skin pop, dura pop, and subcutaneous tissue. The importance of this finding is that it demonstrates the feasibility of an "expert perception"-based approach to the design of medical simulators.

Surface-Based Virtual Dental Surgical Simulator using Haptic Display

AbstractThis research work presents a surface-based virtual dental surgical simulator in which dentists can perform dental procedures using various cutters with realistic feelings of touch. Generating realistic smooth tactile feelings during drilling, grinding, or scrubbing is a critical issue in triangular sculpting simulators. Therefore, a stable haptic rendering algorithm is required to generate realistic touch feeling. In this simulator, the force feedback is realized using a spring damper force model and a force filter is proposed to make the force feedback smooth. Fast and efficient collision detection is used using vertex deformation technique for the sculpting process. In addition, the simulator is not designed for the one specific surface-based tooth model but rather the sculpting simulation can be carried out on any scanned model from a commercial 3D dental scanner.

A Virtual Touch Interaction Device for Immersive Applications

Traditional interaction devices such as computer mice and keyboards do not adapt very well to immersive envi-ronments, since they were not necessarily designed for users who may be standing or in movement. Moreover, in the current inte-raction model for immersive environments, based on wands and 3D mice, a change of context is necessary in order to execute non-immersive tasks. These constant context changes from im-mersive to 2D desktops introduce a rupture in user interaction with the application. The objective of this work is to study how to adapt interaction techniques from touch surface based systems to 3D virtual environments to reduce this physical rupture from the fully immersive mode to the desktop paradigm. In order to do this, a wireless glove (v-Glove) that maps to a touch interface in a vir-tual reality immersive environment was developed, enabling it to interact in 3D applications. The glove has two main functionalities: tracking the position of the user's index finger and vibrating the fingertip when it reaches an area mapped in the interaction space to simulate a touch feeling. Quantitative and qualitative analysis were performed with users to evaluate the v-Glove, comparing it with a gyroscopic 3D mouse.

Design of a Wearable Fingertip Haptic Braille Device

Existing technologies and devices have facilitated the interaction of the blind or visually impaired (BVI) with their surroundings. However, reading remains an area where the potential of these technologies is not fully utilized. This work presents preliminary studies for the design of a finger-wearable E-Braille device that will allow the BVI to read electronic documents as they would read any document in Braille. The proposed device is wearable on a single finger on of the distal and middle phalanges (dorsal side). The main elements of the device are electrotactile display and force sensor. The electrotactile display is an electric board containing a matrix of electrodes that sends current to the fingertip for stimulating the touch feeling of a particular Braille character. By sending a sequence of Braille characters to this board, information can be sent to the user of the device through the generated electrotactile feeling. The force sensor is used in a feedback control loop to maintain steady contact pressure between the fingertip and the display board throughout the reading process. The entire finger-wearable E-Braille tactile display device is composed of a housing that can be customized to individual users, a miniature dc motor, mechanical components, and main elements. The initial testing of the proposed device is underway. Preliminary results indicate that the device can provide tactile sensation similar to that of reading a Braille document. The initial assessment of the device usability is underway.

Assessing Individual Differences in the Use of Haptic Information Using a German Translation of the Need for Touch Scale

A German version of the Need for Touch scale (NFT) was developed and validated in two experiments. Study 1 examined moderator effects of NFT on the influence of product experience on confidence and frustration in product evaluations. As expected, only for high-NFT individuals, confidence increased and frustration decreased when haptic information was available. In Study 2, we explored the influence of NFT in a gambling task. Results showed that individuals with higher NFT more often chose gambling alternatives accompanied by a positive feeling of touch, while individuals with lower NFT did not integrate haptic information. Additionally, results confirmed the theoretically postulated two-dimensional structure of NFT, as well as its discriminant validity.

Obsolescence: Uncovering Values in Technology Use

Obsolescence: Uncovering Values in Technology Use

Touch‐screen panel integrated into 12.1‐in. a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD

Abstract— A touch‐screen‐panel (TSP) embedded 12.1‐in. LCD employing a standard existing a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD process has been successfully developed. Compared with conventional external touch‐screen panels, which use additional components to detect touch events, the new internal TSP exhibits a clearer image and improved touch feeling, as well as increased sensing speed using discrete sensing lines to enable higher‐speed sensing functions including handwriting. The new internal digital switching TSP can be fabricated with low cost because it does not require any additional process steps compared to a standard a‐Si:H TFT‐LCD.