Communicating an Active Haptic Palpation Task Via Synchronized Passive Visio-Haptic Feedback

Abstract

Active touch rapidly communicates properties invisible to the eye or difficult to verbally explain. An example of this is medical palpation exams, where a doctor's manual examination and familiarity with palpation sensations plays a crucial role in their ability to diagnose a patient. For virtual interactions such as telehealth visits, however, active hands-on touch may not be possible. With the goal of restoring haptic information to virtual interactions, we explored conditions under which actively induced touch sensations could be interpreted when applied to a passive hand. We developed a robotic platform that applies palpation-like touch sensations to a passive user by moving a tissue phantom under their stationary hand. We leveraged this platform to explore perceptual implications and potential compensatory methods for preserving peoples' ability to passively interpret haptic sensations. Our psychophysical experiments reveal that participants are capable of diagnosing different sizes of tissue-embedded lumps without the need for active movement. However, we also observe a modest decrease in both accuracy and confidence levels of participants under passive conditions, even following the compensatory introduction of visual feedback. In addition to this palpation application, our system offers a new avenue for multisensory integration studies. Specifically, we demonstrate the ability to induce both "rubber hand" and kinesthetic illusions simultaneously through the provision of a visibly moving hand coupled with synchronous continuous cutaneous and kinesthetic feedback on the concealed static hand.

Note:
Funding Information: The funding for this study is provided by the National Science Foundation according to Grant 2222918.

Declaration of Interests: None.

Keywords: Medical Simulation, Multi-modal Systems, virtual reality