Projects

くすぐられる仕草をされると，皮膚に触れなくともくすぐったく感じることが知られている．これは視覚・触覚に応答する多感覚ニューロンの活動により生じることが指摘されており，本研究ではこれを接触せずに得られる身体感覚として「近接感」と定義する．この近接感は視覚的手がかりのみを用いて誘発することが可能であることから，視覚提示装置のみで再現可能な感覚であると考えられる．この近接感を実触覚刺激と併用することにより，触覚モーダルを介した遠隔地間のコミュニケーションにおける触覚刺激にくすぐったさという意味付けが行えると期待できる．そこで本稿ではまず，他者の指先の運動を掌の上に視覚的に重畳させ，近接感を誘発させる手法を提案する．

毛ディスプレイ

Wearable computing technology is one of the methods that can augment the information processing ability of humans. However, in this area, a soft surface is often necessary to maximize the comfort and practicality of such wearable devices. Thus in this paper, we propose a soft surface material, with an organic bristling effect achieved through mechanical vibration, as a new user interface. We have used fur in order to exhibit the visually rich transformation induced by the bristling effect while also achieving the full tactile experience and benefits of soft materials. Our method needs only a layer of fur and simple vibration motors. The hairs of fur instantly bristle with only horizontal mechanical vibration. The vibration is provided by a simple vibration motor embedded below the fur material. This technology has significant potential as garment textiles or to be utilized as a general soft user interface.

皮膚有毛部の体毛を介した振動感受特性

This paper reports the detection threshold of human hairy skin with the use of a direct vibrotactile stimulus to the hair on human hairy skin. We designed an experimental method to quantify the psychological effect and developed a stimulation instrument to directly stimulate the hair. This vibrotactile stimulation was provided from the tip of tweezers which traveled horizontally or vertically against the human skin. The stimulation point was the approximate middle region of the hair on the middle finger and forearm. A psychological experiment was conducted based on the hypothesis that a frequency characteristic exists on hairy skin with direct stimulus to the hair. As a result, a significant difference depends on frequency was obtained with ANOVA. It was described that the vibrotactile stimulus was conducted to Pacinian by the body hair on the middle finger which has so small section area. This is conflicting finding concerning the size of the contactor which can conduct the stimulus into the lower layer of skin. However, this thresholdcurve and also the introspection reports of participants support this novel finding.

last update November16th, 2011