Patent ID: 8337427

Claim:
A method implemented via a hardware processor, for determining a finger-tapping force in a finger-tapping movement of two fingers of one of a subject's hands by using a bioinstrument device equipped with a set of distance sensors deriving an output relating to a distance between the two fingers, the finger tapping force being a pushing force of the two fingers upon making contact with each other, the method comprising: measuring stiffness characteristics of finger pulps of said two fingers by using the distance sensors and a force sensor as the subject pinches the force sensor with said two sensors; estimating a stiffness function of the finger pulps; registering the stiffness function in a storage unit; obtaining a transitional change of the output of the distance sensors along a test period while the subject keeps on tapping said fingers; extracting information indicative of a sum of displacements of the two fingers in a deformed state within the finger tapping movement, from the transitional change of the output of the distance sensors; and determining the finger-tapping force by using the information indicative of the sum of displacements and the finger pulps' stiffness function retrieved from the storage unit; wherein at least one of the estimating, the registering, the obtaining, the extracting and the determining, are effected via the hardware processor.