Influence of contact conditions on thermal responses of the hand
Name
Galie-2009-Influence of contact conditions on thermal responses of the hand.pdf
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1.55 MB
Format
Adobe PDF
Checksum (MD5)
c4c55134da5883d3acdaa02140d667fa
Author(s)
Jones, Lynette A.
Galie, Jessica
Ho, Hsin-Ni
Date Issued
April 2009
Journal
Third Joint EuroHaptics conference, 2009 and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. World Haptics 2009
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
Citation
Galie, J., H.-N. Ho, and L.A. Jones. “Influence of contact conditions on thermal responses of the hand.” EuroHaptics conference, 2009 and Symposium on Haptic Interfaces for Virtual Environment and Teleoperator Systems. World Haptics 2009. Third Joint. 2009. 587-592. ©2009 Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
A series of experiments was conducted to evaluate how contact pressure and surface roughness influence the heat flux conducted out of the skin or object during contact. Changes in skin temperature assist in identifying objects held in the hand. In the first experiment an infrared thermal imaging system was used to measure skin temperature and contact area as participants generated forces ranging from 0.1 to 6 N with their index finger. The results showed that skin temperature decreased by an average of 5.5degC across the range of forces studied and that the changes were greatest between 0.25-0.35 N and from 4-6 N. The second and third experiments examined the effect of the surface roughness of an object on skin temperature and on the perceived coldness of the object. A set of six copper blocks was machined to create a range of surface profiles. There was a slight decrease in skin temperature as the surface roughness of the object increased, contrary to theoretical predictions. Although small, these changes were perceptible as participants consistently chose the rougher of two stimuli when asked to select the cooler stimulus. These results indicate that contact pressure and surface roughness influence the change in skin temperature during contact and that they can have a perceptible influence on the perceived properties of objects held in the hand. Thermal models need to account for these effects if realistic feedback is to be presented in a thermal display.
Subjects
thermal display
perception
temperature
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Mechanical Engineering
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
Persistent DSpace Link
DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1109/WHC.2009.4810902
