The study, published in Nature Communications, describes the development of the new touch-related technology, which enables the delivery of realistic feedback in the human fingertip to simulate touch more naturally than previous devices.
The technology will help to better understand the complexities of our sense of touch, with a wide range of applications already being considered.
The technology can be used to improve the diagnosis of patients experiencing loss of touch. This is diagnosed by a clinician touching the skin with single-fibre brushes of increasing weight and asking the patient if they can feel it. This provides an indication of where the loss of sensation is located.
The bioinspired haptic (BAMH) system could be used to automate this process, speeding it up, freeing up clinicians’ time and providing more empirical data on which to base diagnoses.
The pulses delivered by the BAHM system lie within the 0-130 Hertz sensitivity range of the skin’s touch receptors. This allows for more precise activation of touch receptors across the front, bottom, and lateral areas of the finger, resulting in a more accurate and selective sensation.
The technology could also be applied to improve robotics surgery techniques.
Professor Helge Wurdemann, an author of the study from UCL Mechanical Engineering, said: “The BAMH system enhances our ability to quantify both the sensitivity – the minimum stimulus intensity required for humans to perceive a touch – and the differentiation of stimuli in human fingers. By reducing the subjectivity of current diagnosis methods, we think the system can significantly improve this process.”
