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Summary of Research

Proving Tools for Comfort Based on Human Measurements Taken from an Engineering Perspective

The goal at our laboratory is to take measurements of the living human body from an engineering perspective and to apply the knowledge gained to develop tools that make life more comfortable and convenient. The technologies for extracting char-acteristic perturbations from various data such as changes in brain waves, muscle potential, changes in center of gravity, and skin surface temperature form the founda-tions of our research.

Developing a Tactile Display That Harnesses Sensory IllusionsOne research theme we are currently pursuing through biometrics is the development of a tactile display. In the past, tactile displays enjoyed a limited range of applications, such as braille displays for the visually impaired. Tactile displays that can relay infor-mation to users transparently without occupying their visual sense should prove just as beneficial to those with normal vision as they are to the visually impaired.A braille display consists of large numbers of piezoelectric elements. A much simpler system would be preferable as tools for everyday life. We have chosen to harness the phenomenon of sensory illusion in our sense of touch to relay as much information as possible using only three vibrating elements. One example of visual sensory illusion is apparent movement, experienced when we are tricked into perceiving movement in a very fast slideshow of still images. A similar phenomenon of apparent movement ap-plies to tactile perception.We can use another sensory illusion called phantom sensation to create the apparent sensation of a third vibrating element between two vibrating elements. Combining the phantom sensation with apparent movement, we found that three vibrating elements were sufficient to pro-duce a tactile sensation of direction that could be discerned with an angular precision of 18°.

A Safe Personal Authentication System Based on Vibration StimulusWe a re deve lop ing a personal authentication system as tactile display t e c h n o l o g y w h e re b y passwords would con-sist of a combination of specific vibration pat-terns perceptible only by the person in question. Passwords based on vibrational tactile sensa-tions promise greater se-curity than the passwords based on numbers or characters used in most authentication systems, which can be stolen as they are entered.

Enriching human life through biometrics

Masafumi UCHIDA Laboratory

Masafumi UCHIDA

http://ulab.ee.uec.ac.jp/2010/

Tactile display; biometrics; apparent movement; 1/f fluctuations; P300 wave; prevention; robotic balloon fish

AffiliationsInstitute of Electrical Engineers of Japan; Robotics Society of Japan; Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)

Member Masafumi Uchida, Associate professor

Keywords

Robotic balloon fish

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Quantitative Recognition of Hand-Written CharactersWe are also seeking to produce technologies based on bio-metrics to enhance the recognition precision of hand-written characters. By creating a database of biometric changes in brain waves and muscle potentials observed as people write text, especially those observed when specific changes occur in the character of text being written, we hope to quantify indi-vidual characteristics and improve the precision of handwriting recognition.It has also been found that handwriting is closely associated with the sense of rhythm. For example, a 1/f fluctuation can be induced in a subject by providing appropriate auditory stimulus, making writing motions smoother and easier. Data obtained from analysis of handwritten characters may allow quantifica-tion of stress or fatigue, with potential applications in rehabilita-tion programs.

Advantages

Know-How for Extracting Characteristic Changes from Massive Volumes of Biometric Data

A wide range of information can be collected through biomet-rics. We know that a stimulus elicits P300 brain waves. We have shown that a subject’s body exhibits characteristic pertur-bations and muscle potential changes in response to specific tactile stimulus. One of our greatest advantages is our exper-tise with comprehensive analyses of the biological and physi-ological reactions extracted from massive volumes of biometric data.

Robotic balloon fish

We are also at work on developing a robotic balloon fish, al-though this is not a direct application of our technologies re-lated to biometrics. The robot, which moves forward by moving its fins like a real fish, has been discussed in various media and awarded the special prize three times in the All Japan Student’s Indoor Flying Robot Contest. We plan to incorporate more so-phisticated swimming motions to create schools of fish, even-tually opening a floating aquarium.The robot technology can be integrated with our biometric technologies to realize robots capable of interacting with humans.

Future Prospects

A Navigation System with Access to the Subconscious

Our experiments with tactile displays show that subjects tend to subconsciously move their bodies when subjected to vibra-tional stimulus. When a subject is made to perceive downward apparent movement through a vibrating element attached to his or her fingertip, the hand tends to move downward, even if the subject consciously tries to maintain the position of the hand.Such phenomenon may have potential applications to unique automatic navigation systems, wherein a vibrating element worn by the user not only indicates the correct direction, but gently tugs the user in that direction through a subconscious mechanism.This ability to send information to the subconscious poses sig-nificant potential. It may have applications that enhance safety through a device that warns users of impending obstacles via vibrational stimuli, attracting the attention of the subconscious mind to prevent accidents even before the user consciously perceives a hazard.

Measuring perturbation and electromyogram (EMG) observed in response to a specific tactile stimulus administered to a subject

Eliciting P300 waves in response to a specific stimulus

Modular robot

Infrastructure