Haptic discrimination of object size using vibratory sensory substitution

Humans constantly rely on a complex interaction of a variety of sensory modalities in order to complete even the simplest of daily tasks. For reaching and grasping to interact with objects, the visual, tactile, and proprioceptive senses provide the majority of the information used. While vision is often relied on for many tasks, most people are able to accomplish common daily rituals without constant visual attention, instead relying mainly on tactile and proprioceptive cues. However, amputees using prosthetic arms do not have access to these cues, making tasks impossible without vision. Even tasks with vision can be incredibly difficult as prosthesis users are unable to modify grip force using touch, and thus tend to grip objects excessively hard to make sure they don’t slip.

Methods such as vibratory sensory substitution have shown promise for providing prosthesis users with a sense of contact and have proved helpful in completing motor tasks. In this thesis, two experiments were conducted to determine whether vibratory cues could be useful in discriminating between sizes. In the first experiment, subjects were asked to grasp a series of hidden virtual blocks of varying sizes with vibrations on the fingertips as indication of contact and compare the size of consecutive boxes. Vibratory haptic feedback significantly increased the accuracy of size discrimination over objects with only visual indication of contact, though accuracy was not as great as for typical grasping tasks with physical blocks. In the second, subjects were asked to adjust their virtual finger position around a series of virtual boxes with vibratory feedback on the fingertips using either finger movement or EMG. It was found that EMG control allowed for significantly less accuracy in size discrimination, implying that, while proprioceptive feedback alone is not enough to determine size, direct kinesthetic information about finger position is still needed.