Haptic Transmission System to Recognize Differencesin Surface Textures of Objects for Telexistence
Tadatoshi Kurogi*, Masano Nakayama*, Katsunari Sato**, Sho Kamuro***, Charith Lasantha Fernando*,
Masahiro Furukawa*, Kouta Minamizawa*, and Susumu Tachi**Graduate School of Media Design, Keio University,**Graduate School of System Design and Management, Keio University, ***The University of Tokyo

(a)

(b)

(c)

(d)

Figure 1: (a)TELESAR V. (b) Haptic scanner on TELESAR V slave hand. (c) Haptic display on operator glove. (d) Checking for denim
touching sensation by TELESAR V.

In this paper, we propose a haptic transmission system fortelexistence to improve the ability to sense the presence of remoteobjects. This system can transmit information about the existence
and surface textures of objects in remote locations. The system
consists of a conjugated haptic sensor and display. The sensor on
the robot’s finger detects the pressure, vibration, and temperatureof a remote object, and the display provides above information on
the operator’s finger. Based on this information, the operator canunderstand what he/she is touching and whether its surface is hardor soft, cold or hot, and smooth or rough. With the use of oursystem, the operator can recognize the difference between objects
such as silk and denim.

Meissner’s corpuscles, Pacinian corpuscles, cold receptors, andwarm receptors respectively [3]. There have been numerous
studies on the transmission of haptic information, but most ofthese have only been able to transmit a limited amount of
information [4-7]. On the other hand, some haptic scanners [8]and haptic displays [9] have been developed that can detect orprovide relatively rich haptic information.
In this paper, we propose a multiple haptic informationtransmission system that consists of a haptic scanner, haptic
display, and processing block as a package that can transmit
pressure, vibration, and thermal sensations. The system isdesigned based on physiological haptic perception, as well as a
one-to-one correspondence between the scanning and displaying
components to reproduce a sensation for each receptor.

Keywords: Haptic devices, telecommunications, scanners.

2ABSTRACT

Index Terms: B.2.11 [communication hardware, interfaces, andstorage]: tactile and hand-based interfaces — haptic devices; J.1.3[human-centered computing]: human computer interaction(HCI)—interaction devices
1INTRODUCTION

Telexistence is a concept referring to technology that enables ahuman to experience the real-time sensation of being at a place
other than where he/she actually exists, and to interact withremote environment [1]. In telexistence, it is necessary to provide
an operator with not only visual and auditory information but also
haptic information about the remote environment and objects inorder to realistically represent those remote objects andenvironment. We have developed a haptic transmission systemthat is installed in TELESAR V telexistence system [2].
Human haptic sensations are composed of two types ofsensations: kinesthetic and cutaneous sensations. Cutaneoussensations include sensations of pressure, flutter, vibration, cold,warm, and pain. The sensations of pressure, flutter, vibration, cold,
and warm are acquired by Merkel cell neurite complexes,*, **, *** {kurogi, masano, sato, kamuro, charith,m.furukawa, kouta, tachi}@tachilab.org
IEEE Virtual Reality 201316 - 20 March, Orlando, FL, USA
978-1-4673-4796-9/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE

SYSTEM DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATIONAs shown in Figure 2, the haptic transmission system consists ofthree parts: a haptic scanner, haptic display, and processing block.
When the haptic scanner touches an object, it obtains haptic
information such as contact pressure, vibration, and temperature.
The haptic display provides haptic stimuli on the user’s finger toreproduce the haptic information obtained by the haptic scanner.
The processing block connects the haptic scanner with the haptic
display, and converts the obtained physical data into data that
include the physiological haptic perception for reproduction by
the haptic display. The details of the mechanisms for scanning anddisplaying are described below.
First, a force sensor inside the haptic scanner measures thepressure magnitude when the haptic scanner touches an object.
Then, a motor-belt mechanism [10] in the haptic display
reproduces the pressure on the operator’s fingertips. The
processing block controls the electrical current of the motor toprovide the target torque based on the measured pressure. As aresult, the mechanism reproduces the pressure sensation when thehaptic scanner touches the object.
Second, a microphone in the haptic scanner records the soundgenerated at its surface when the haptic scanner is in contact withan object. Then, a force reactor in the haptic display plays therecorded sound as a vibration [11]. This vibration provides a highfrequency haptic sensation. Therefore, the information should betransmitted without delay. For this purpose, the processing blocktransfers the sound signals using circuits with no transformation.
Third, a thermistor sensor in the haptic scanner measures thesurface temperature of the object. The measured temperature isreproduced by a Peltier actuator placed on the operator’s137

fingertips. The processing block generates a control signal for thePeltier actuator. The signal is generated based on a PID control
loop with a feedback from a thermistor located on the Peltieractuator. The P and D parameters in the PID control loop are set
to large values for a high response rate.
As shown on the left side of Figure 3, the haptic scannerconsists of ten parts, including three sensors: the Base Part, Top,Force Sensor, Resilient Material, Movable Part, Microphone,Microphone Base, Soft Material, Temperature Sensor, and Skin
Part. The Base Part and Top serve as human nails. The Movable
Part, Resilient Material, and Soft Material serve as an elastic body
like a dermis and subcutis. The Skin Part serves as the epidermis.
As shown on the right side of Figure 3, the haptic display
consists of the Body Part, Motor, Belt, Peltier, and Force Reactor.
The Body Part and Motor are arranged on the nail side. The Belt,Force Reactor, and Peltier are arranged on the fingertip side inorder to attach both the Force Reactor and the Peltier firmly to thefingertip. Moreover, the haptic display was designed to becompact so as not to restrict bending and stretching movements ofthe finger.

࣭ It is difficult to feel a haptic sensation for very soft objects.
࣭ Reproducing the temperature has a long delay.
As a result, it was found that our haptic transmission system
could deliver haptic information that was a good match for thevisual information. However, it was not able to reproduce thesensation that users can feel when directly touching an object with
their fingers.

Figure 4: Haptic transmission system.

4CONCLUSION

In order to realize natural interaction with objects located inremote places, we proposed a haptic transmission system thatconsists of the haptic scanner, haptic display, and processing
block. This system can transmit pressure, vibration, and thermalsensations. The system can provide haptic sensations that are agood match to those imagined from visual information. In thefuture, we will construct a haptic transmission system that is alsoable to represent the pressure distribution on the fingertips toreproduce a more realistic haptic sensation.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Figure 2: Data flow chart of the haptic transmission system.
BaseREFERENCES

Top

ForceSensor
Resilient
MaterialSoftMaterial

Skin Part[1]Body Part
Motor
Movable Part
Microphone

Belt
Peltier

Microphone
Base

Force Reactor

Temperature

Figure 3: (Left) Construction of haptic scanner.
(Right) Construction of haptic display.

3

USER EXPERIENCE AND DISCUSSION

We demonstrated TELESAR V and the haptic transmission
system at an international conference [2] and a domestic
conference in technical demonstrations (Figure 1 (d) and Figure 4).
Participants wore the haptic display and felt haptic sensations
through the system. With the use of our system, the participants
touched a T-shirt, denim, a LEGO block, snake skin, a bamboomat, hot or cold cans, and an empty cup or a cup filled withmarbles. Some of the comments that we frequently received arelisted below.
࣭ The differences between the surface textures of clothes ormaterials can be recognized.
࣭ The visual and haptic information are well matched so as
not to cause a feeling of discomfort.
࣭ The sensations that the participants can feel through thesystem are not the same as those that they feel when
directly touching something with their fingers.

138

This work is supported by the JST-CREST Haptic Media Project.

S. Tachi, “Telexistence” World Scientific, 2010. [Online]. Available:
http://www.worldscibooks.com/compsci/7079.html[2] C. L. Fernando, M. Furukawa, T. Kurogi, K. Hirota, S. Kamuro, K.
Sato, K. Minamizawa, and S. Tachi, “TELESAR V: TELExistence
Surrogate Anthropomorphic Robot”, SIGGRAPH’ 12 , 2012
[3] L. A. Jones and S. J. Lederman, Human Hand Function. Oxford
University Press, 2006
[4] D. Kontarinis and R. Howe, “Tactile Display of Vibratory
Information in Teleoperation and Virtual Environments”, Presence,
1995[5] N. S. Methil, Y. Shen, D. Zhu, C.A. Pomeroy, R. Mukherjee, N. Xi,and M. Mutka, “Development of Supermedia Interface for
Telediagnostics of Breast Pathology”, ICRA'06, 2006
[6] T. Yamauchi, S. Okamoto, M. Konyo, Y. Hidaka, T. Maeno, and S.
Tadokoro, “Realtime Remote Transmission of Multiple Tactile
Properties Through Master-Slave Robot System”, ICRA'10, 2010
[7] K. Sato, H. Shinoda, and S. Tachi, “Design and Implementation ofTransmission System of Initial Haptic Impression”, SICE Annual
Conference, 2011[8] C. H. Lin, T. W. Erickson, J. A. Fishel, N. Wettels, and G. E. Joeb,“Signal Processing and Fabrication of a Biomimetic Tactile Sensor
Array with Thermal, Force and Microvibration Modalities”, ROBIO,
2009[9] P. Kammermeier, A. Kron, J. Hoogen, and G. Schmidt, “Display ofHolistic Haptic Sensations by Combined Tactile and KinestheticFeedback”, Presence, Vol. 13, No.1, pp. 1-15, 2004[10] G. Inaba and K Fujita, “A Pseudo-Force-Feedback Device byFingertip Tightening for Multi-Finger Object Manipulation”,
EuroHaptics’06, 2006[11] K. Minamizawa, Y. Kakehi, M. Nakatani, S. Mihara, and S. Tachi,“TECHTILE toolkit”, SIGGRAPH’ 12, 2012