Telementoring using Tactile Cues

Overview

Project Description

Introduction

The word Haptic is defined by the webster dictionary as "relating to or based on the sense of touch".

Nevertheless, in psycophysics, the haptic system is defined as a perceptual channel based on the combined input from the skin and from the joints. According to Gibson [Gibson J.J. 1966], the haptic system "is an apparatus by which the individual gets information about the environment and its body"; the person "feels an object relative to the body and the body relative to the object".

The haptic system, hence, can be understood as the union of the tactile and kinesthetic senses used in mechanical interaction with one's environment.

Haptic Communication Systems

Haptic Communication Systems can be subdivided into three categories (Figure 1):

1. Teleoperation

A human controls a robot manipulator to perform tasks that are, usually, risky for the person. In this relationship, the human is referred to as the master and the robot as the slave. Input is taken from the master's arm and hand motions through a mechanical hand controller. Besides visual feedback, the master might have haptic feedback in the form of force reflection and more recently tactile information.

2. Virtual Reality

A human interacts with a computer generated environment. In this relationship, the roles haven't been defined yet, but could be identified as human and machine, apprentice and computer, or player and toy. The main developments in this area have concentrated on taking input from the human's hand, arm, head, and even whole body movements. Also, many developments have concentrated on providing haptic information feedback to the human, especially to the finger tips and palm of the hand.

FIGURE 1. Telemedicine examples of the 3 categories of haptic communication systems.

	Teleoperation
	Virtual Reality
	Telementoring

3. Telementoring

A human interacts with another human to perform a task, while being distant one from the other. In this relationship, the person that is away from the task is referred to as the mentor and the person that performs the task is referred to as the mentee. The mentor's role is to aid the mentee in accomplishing the task. Developments in this area are limited to video and audio communication alone.

Research

The Telementoring using Tactile Cues research project focuses on the Telementoring instance of Haptic Communication. Issues addressed include understanding if it is feasible and where is it useful, and identifying its fundamental performance variables. It is expected to be able to provide examples that indicate the potential of this way of communication for remote control and training.

To achieve these goals, we are developing a testbed (Figure 2). The testbed consists of two finger-less gloves. One glove, worn by the mentor, contains a position sensor. The other glove, worn by the mentee, contains several actuators on the palm, back, and maybe sides of the hand, and also a position sensor. The actuators should provide tactile cues to the mentee which will suggest the mentor's desired motion. These cues should be absolutely clear and intuitive to the mentee.

FIGURE 2. Proposed research testbed.

Using this testbed, two situations will be studied. The first situation will study generic hand motions, starting with one degree of freedom, and later adding more degrees of freedom to create more complex hand motions. The second situation will be a clinical test of the device to perform telementoring for remote ultrasound diagnosis (Figure 3). We expect to be able to draw a relationship between these two situations and from there extrapolate the results to other specific applications.

FIGURE 3. Clinical tests configuration.

Personnel Involved

Gabriel Gruener

Related Literature

Bach-y-Rita P. et al., 1982, "Neurophysiological & perceptual considerations for tactile sensory substitution", IEEE Frontiers of Engineering in Health Care, p.348.

Balch, D.C., 1994, "Telemedicine in Rural North Carolina", Interactive Technology and the New Paradigm for Healthcare, ed. Morgan, K., R.M.Satava, H.B.Sieburg,R.Mattheus and J.P.Christensen, pp. 15-20.

Keller, et al. 1947, "Studies to determine the functional requirements for hand and arm prosthesis", University of California, Los Angeles, CA.

Burdea G. and Coiffet P., 1994, "Virtual Reality Technology", Wiley, New York.

Caldwell, D. and Gosney, C., 1993, "Enhanced Tactile Feedback (Tele-Taction) using a Multi-Functional Sensory System", Proceedings of the 1993 IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, Atlanta, GA, pp. 955-960, May.

Durlach N. and Mavor A., 1995, editors, "Virtual Reality: Scientific and Technological Challenges", Committee on Virtual Reality Research and Development, National Research Council, Washington, DC.

Froelich, B. et al., 1995, "The Responsive Workbench. A Virtual Working Environment for Physicians", Interactive Technology and the New Paradigm for Healthcare, ed. Morgan, K., R.M.Satava, H.B.Sieburg, R.Mattheus and J.P.Christensen, pp. 118-125.

Gescheider, G.A., 1976, "Psychophysics. Method and Theory", John Wiley and Sons, N.Y.

Gibson, R., 1966, "Electrical Stimulation of Pain and Touch", International Symposium on Skin Senses, D. Kenshalo, ed., Springfield, IL

Green, P.S. et al., 1995, "Telepresence Surgery", IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology, May/June, pp. 324-329.

Homer, "The Odyssey", transl. William C. Bryant, 1871, The Riverside Press, Cambridge, MA.

Kaczmarek, K. A. et al., 1991, "Electrotactile and Vibrotactile Displays for Sensory Substitution Systems", IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, v. 38, n. 1, pp. 1-16.

Meyer, D.M. et al., 1995, "The Virtual Hospital. Networks of Information Alleys, Streets, Boulevards, ...", Interactive Technology and the New Paradigm for Healthcare, ed. Morgan, K., R.M.Satava, H.B.Sieburg, R.Mattheus and J.P.Christensen, pp. 253-262.

Meyer, K. et al., 1992, "A Survey of Position Trackers", Presence: teleoperators and virtual environments, v. 1, n. 2, pp. 173-200.

Parsons, D.F., 1994, "The Effects of Telemedicine on Access, Cost and Quality of Health Care", Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, v. 2, pp. 1011-1012.

Satava, R.M., 1994, "The Modern Medical Battlefield: Sequitur on Advanced Medical Technology", IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, September, pp. 21-25.

Schiffman, H.R., 1982, "Sensation and Perception. An Integrated Approach", John Wiley and Sons, N.Y., 2nd ed.

Shimoga, K.B. and Khosla, P.K., 1994a, "Touch and Force Reflection for Telepresence Surgery", Proceedings of the 1994 IEEE International Conference of the Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, v. 2, pp. 1049-1050.

Speeter, T.H., 1992, "Transforming Human Hand Motion for Telemanipulation", Presence: teleoperators and virtual environments, v. 1, n.1, pp. 63-79.

Stone, R., 1991, "Advanced Human-System Interfaces for Telerobotics Using Virtual Reality and Telepresence Technologies", Proceedings of the Fifth International Conference on Advanced Robotics (`91 ICAR), Pisa, Italy, pp. 168-173.

Verrillo, R.T., 1966a, "Effect of Spatial Parameters on the Vibrotactile Threshold", Journal of Experimental Psychology, v.71, n.4, pp. 570-575.

Zhu H., 1988, "Electrotactile Stimulation", in "Tactile Sensors for Robotics and Medicine", John G. Webster, ed., Wiley, New York.

Related Web Sites

Telementoring

O'Neill, K., "Telementoring in the CoVis Project", CoVis.

Wighton, D.J. 1993, "Telementoring: An Examination of the Potential for an Educational Network", Platform Horizons.

Telemedicine

Scannell, C. et. al., 1995, "Telemedicine: Past, Present, Future", U.S. Dept. of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, National Institutes of Health, National Library of Medicine, Reference Section.

Webb, J., 1995, "Aerospace Medicine and Occupational Health Division", NASA.

Virtual Reality

"Virtual Technologies", Virtual Technologies Inc.

Robb, R.A. and Cameron, B., 1995, "Virtual Reality Assisted Surgery Program", Interactive Technology and the New Paradigm for Healthcare, ed. Morgan, K., R.M.Satava, H.B.Sieburg, R.Mattheus and J.P.Christensen, pp. 309-321.

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