Stochastic Relationships between the Normal and Shear Interaction Forces During Tactile Exploration of Textures

摘要

Humans recognize textures through the interaction induced by the normal and shear forces generated between the fingertip and the surface of objects when sliding their fingers on material surfaces. We investigated the stochastic relationships of these two axial forces during tactile exploration. The characteristic values of the elliptical distribution obtained by the variations of the two axial forces were analyzed. It was found that the sizes, shapes, and gradients of the elliptical distribution of the low and high frequency forces statistically varied among the 18 types of textures. These parameters may be the indicators to distinguish the unevenness of the surface profile and the behavior of friction between the surface of material and the fingertip. The fact that the stochastic relationships between the two axial forces depend on the surface of material help us understand human texture perception.