Tactile illusions for guiding hand motions: modelling and applications in augmented and mixed reality

In this talk I will discuss the role of touch as an auxiliary proprioceptive cue for movement control. Using a well-established perceptual phenomenon arisen from the interaction with a ridged plate, I will show how motion estimates from different somatosensory cues – including tactile motion estimates that are biased by ridge orientation -- are optimally integrated for the control of hand movements. Results can be explained relying on an ideal observer model and used to devise model predictive control strategies for guiding hand motions. These strategies could be exploited as haptic retargeting techniques in mixed and augmented reality applications.

Papers

Moscatelli, A.*, Bianchi, M.*, Ciotti, S., Bettelani, G. C., Parise, C. V., Lacquaniti, F., &

Bicchi, A. (2019).Touch as an auxiliary proprioceptive cue for movement control. Science advances, 5(6), eaaw3121.

G.C. Bettelani, S. Fani, A. Moscatelli, P. Salaris and M. Bianchi. Controlling Hand Movements relying on Tactile Illusions: A Model Predictive Control Framework. In WORLD HAPTICS 2021 PROC. Accepted