Sensing and displaying spatially distributed fingertip forces in haptic interfaces for teleoperator and virtual environment systems

This article reports a variety of sensory and perceptual consequences of el iminating, via a rigid fingertip sheath, the spatially distributed fingerti p force information that is normally available during tactile and haptic se nsing. Sensory measures included tactile spatial acuity, tactile force, and vibrotactile thresholds. Suprathreshold tasks included perception of rough ness, perception of 2-D edge orientation, and detection of a simulated 3-D mass in simulated tissue via fingertip palpation. Of these performance meas ures, only vibrotactile thresholds and texture perception failed to show su bstantial impairment. The results are discussed in terms of their implicati ons for the future design of haptic interfaces for teleoperator and virtual environment systems.