Continuum Mechanics of Touch

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Under construction

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"Tactile Contact Lens" ("TouchLens")

A "Tactile Contact Lens" is a new device that I invented in collaboration with Prof. Akihito Sano, Prof. Hideo Fujimoto, etc, when I was with Nagoya Institute of Technology.

Good Design Award

Its unexplained effect

The "tactile-contact-lens effect" can be explained by using the classical principle of leverage. It is just a displacement magnifier. However, it had been unclear how and why

• the magnification of the tangential displacement of the skin
  

results in

• a magnified sensation of surface undulation (i.e., normal displacement of the skin).
  

Through an analytical analysis using continuum mechanics, we successfully explained this phenomenon.

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• Ryo Kikuuwe, Akihito Sano, Hiromi Mochiyama, Naoyuki Takesue, and Hideo Fujimoto: “Enhancing Haptic Detection of Surface Undulation,” ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, 2(1), pp. 46-67, 2005.
  • [Link to ACM Digital Library]
  • [pdf of draft version]
    ©ACM, 2004. This is the author's version of the work. It is posted here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in ACM Transactions on Applied Perception, Volume 2, Issue 1 (January 2005) http://doi.acm.org/10.1145/1048687.1048691
  • This paper includes detailed technical information on the "tactile contact lens," the results of psychophysical experiments, and mathematical explanation on the "tactile contact lens effect."
  
  

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