Motivated by the highly successful Tadoma method of speech communication, a multi-finger positional display (the TACTUATOR) was developed to study perception via the kinesthetic and vibrotactile aspects of the tactual sensory system of the hand. The information transmission capabilities with the TACTUATOR were assessed through a series of absolute identification experiments. An information tran...

Psychologists distinguish between active and passive touch. The latter arises when objects are brought into contact with a passive tactile surface, such as the palm of the band. Active touch describes a dynamic exploration of objects involving receptors located in both the skin (cutaneous) and the joints (kinesthetic). Research in the area of robotic tactile perception has focussed on passive t...

In this research we implemented three different methods for presenting scientific graphs to blind and visually impaired people. Each rendering method employed either audition, kinesthetic or a combination of those two modalities. In order to allow for distance learning, we have used low cost portable devices for the output graph rendering. The three modes of representation were then compared by...

Computational geometry is a new branch of knowledge in computer science that deals with the analysis and design of algorithms for solving geometric problems. These problems typically arise in computer graphics, image processing, computer vision, and robotics. In the past few years many of the algorithms proposed for solving geometric problems have been found to be incorrect. These incorrect alg...

It is possible that the simplest visual perceptions are those of surface and edge (1). These impressions can be obtained when the eyes are fixated, i.e., without having to consider the effect of the succession of overlapping retinal images normally obtained when the visual environment is scanned. They can probably be explained without reference to the stimulation arising from the posture and th...

The context of this paper is the design of a kinesthetic interface to virtual environments. Several kinesthetic interfaces have previously been developed. Minsky[ 15lhas developed a device for creating “virtual sandpaper”. A powered joystick interfaced to a real-time computer simulation allows the user to “feel” textured surfaces. The simulation implements textures as a mapping from joystick po...

Object recognition is an essential capability when performing various tasks. Humans naturally use either or both visual and tactile perception to extract object class properties. Typical approaches for robots, however, require complex systems multiple high-density sensors which can be highly expensive. In addition, they usually actual collection of a large dataset from real objects through dire...