Two-Dimensional Fingertip Force Training With Improved Haptic Sensation via Stochastic Resonance

To learn motor skills using a finger in many haptic training systems, a user places his or her finger in a holder to communicate with a haptic interface. It is known that the force-detection capability at the fingertip is reduced when the user's finger is enclosed in a holder. The learning performance might therefore be impaired in training. Stochastic resonance is known to improve sensitivity at the fingertip. We thus propose a fingertip force learning method using stochastic resonance. We first examine the effect of stochastic resonance on the user haptic performance in a two-dimensional task when the fingertip is within the finger holder. The outcomes indicate that the user fingertip sensitivity increases even when the finger is placed within a holder. We next perform force learning tasks in one- and two-dimensional space. Our proposed method that combines haptic feedback and stochastic resonance is compared with the method in which only haptic feedback is provided to the user in force leaning tasks. Results obtained using the proposed method indicate that the performance outcome of the proposed method is higher than that of the comparison method. This study demonstrates the potential of the proposed method for motor learning tasks.