Thermal Model for Hand-Object Interactions

A thermal model is proposed that predicts the temperature responses of the skin and material surface during hand-object interactions as well as the heat flux exchanged when the fingerpad makes contact with an object. The surface features of the fingerpad were measured in order to estimate the thermal contact resistance which is included in the model. A simulation based on the model was performed to calculate the thermal responses of the fingerpad as it made contact with a range of materials with varying thermal properties. A thermal measurement system based on an infrared camera has been designed and fabricated to overcome the limitations imposed by the contact thermal sensors. This system will be used to evaluate the validity of the model in predicting the changes in skin temperature during contact.