This paper presents a learning model that enables a robot to acquire body representation for its face which is invisible to itself while the robot touches it. Two processes are simultaneously carried out: self-organization of tactile sensor unit configuration though the visuo-tactile sensations by self-induced motor behaviors, and facial part detection based on the discontinuity of sensor values.

In this report we describe how the tactile smoothness of shaven beards depends on the distribution of the stubble lengths remaining after shaving and on various skin parameters like coarseness and scaliness. To this end, we set up two experiments on perceived smoothness with blinded human judges. In the first experiment we used artificial beards with various stubble length distributions and stu...

In nursing, ‘touch may be the most important of all non-verbal behaviours’ (Nesbitt Blondis and Jackson 1982) but Tutton (1998) questions whether nurses actually reflect on their own use of touch and the potential that touch has to contribute to high quality care. Tutton (1998) suggests that touch in nursing is more often associated with procedures, and that this ‘powerful expression’ may be un...

This papers analyzes the reliability of radius of curvature estimates from tactile sensor data. A linear elastic model is used to t the indenter parameters, load, location, and curvature, to the sensor output. It was found that both contact models and calibration techniques could dramatically eeect the bias and variance of the estimated indenter parameters. The Fourier series is found to be an ...

Anorexia Nervosa (AN) patients have a disturbed experience of body size and shape. Previously it has been shown that these body representation disturbances extend to enlarged perception of tactile distances. Here we investigated whether misperception of tactile size could be related to inaccurate elementary somatosensory perception. Tactile size perception was measured with the Tactile Estimati...

This paper presents a study on the effects of tactile fidelitythe degree of exactness with which real-world tactile stimuli are reproducedon the perception of single-finger and whole-hand touch gestures. We developed an armbased tactile display consisting of a four-by-three grid of linear resonant actuator motors to facilitate our investigation. This device supported two extreme levels of tac...

To explore the neural substrates of visual-tactile crossmodal integration during motion direction discrimination, we conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging with 15 subjects. We initially performed independent unimodal visual and tactile experiments involving motion direction matching tasks. Visual motion discrimination activated the occipital cortex bilaterally, extending to the poster...

Tactile perception is typically considered the result of cortical interpretation of afferent signals from a network of mechanical sensors underneath the skin. Yet, tactile illusion studies suggest that tactile perception can be elicited without afferent signals from mechanoceptors. Therefore, the extent that tactile perception arises from isomorphic mapping of tactile afferents onto the somatos...

In a series of experimental investigations of a subject with a unilateral impairment of tactile object recognition without impaired tactile sensation, several issues were addressed. First, is tactile agnosia secondary to a general impairment of spatial cognition? On tests of spatial ability, including those directed at the same spatial integration process assumed to be taxed by tactile object r...