Force Perception by Presentation of Skin Shear Deformation to Shoulder
摘要
The “hanger reflex” is an illusion in which a strong rotational force is induced on the head by wearing a wire hanger around the head. This phenomenon, which is caused by shear deformation of the skin due to compression, has been confirmed in several parts of the body other than the head. Because this phenomenon can present a sense of force using lightweight devices, a potential application of this phenomenon is supporting upper-limb rehabilitation. While the wrist and elbow are applicable locations of this phenomenon on the upper limbs, these locations alone are not sufficient to cover all rehabilitation movements. To increase the applicable rehabilitation movements, new applicable locations are needed. Therefore, we propose shoulder as a new application body part. Using methods employed in other locations, a device was developed to present the shear deformation of the skin to the shoulder. We conducted an experiment to verify the perception of force along the shoulder with the developed device. The result suggested that participants were able to perceive the force from the presented forward and backward shear deformation of the skin.