Basic Investigation of Hair Perception Characteristics at the Fingertip
摘要
Many studies have investigated methods for presenting the sensation of touching hair, and tactile devices dedicated to this sensation have been proposed. However, the tactile factors that cause the sensation of hair have not been clarified, which is why the synthetic presentation of the sensation using tactile devices for general purposes is difficult. In this study, we considered four factors contributing to the tactile sensation of hair: thickness, density, contact area, and stiffness. This study aims to investigate the impact of these factors on the tactile sensation of hair and hair-likeness. We used 3D-printed tactile patterns to change the thickness, density, and contact area; the thickness and density were defined by the diameter and interval of cylindrical bumps on the pattern. The contact area was defined by the elevation angle of the pattern at which the pattern curves along the finger. A spring-based elastic support mechanism was used to change the stiffness. In the experiment, participants were asked to imagine human hair and evaluate their subjective level of hair-likeness when touching the pattern. The results showed that the ratings of hair-likeness were highest when the density was approximately 0.7 mm in interval and the contact area was approximately \({60}^\circ \) elevation angle. Regarding thickness and stiffness, an optimal value was not found among the conditions in the experiment; hair-likeness was higher when the thickness was lesser and the stiffness was lower.