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Sample records for affects touch perception

  1. A touch of affect: mediated social touch and affect

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2012-01-01

    This position paper outlines the first stages in an ongoing PhD project on mediated social touch, and the effects mediated touch can have on someone's affective state. It is argued that touch is a profound communication channel for humans, and that communication through touch can, to some extent,

  2. Affective touch awareness in mental health and disease relates to autistic traits - An explorative neurophysiological investigation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Croy, Ilona; Geide, Helen; Paulus, Martin; Weidner, Kerstin; Olausson, Håkan

    2016-11-30

    Affective touch is important for social interaction within families and groups and there is evidence that unmyelinated C tactile fibers are involved in this process. Individuals with autism spectrum disorders show alterations in the perception and processing of affective touch. sThus, we hypothesized that affective touch awareness based on C tactile fiber activation is impaired in individuals with high levels of autistic trait. The pleasantness perception of optimal and suboptimal C tactile stimuli was tested in an explorative study in 70 patients recruited from an outpatient psychotherapy clinic and 69 healthy comparison subjects. All participants completed questionnaires about autistic traits, depressive symptomatology, childhood maltreatment, and about the daily amount of touch. Relative to comparison subjects, patients reported engaging in touch less frequently in daily life and rated touch less pleasant. Reduced valence ratings of touch were explained by childhood maltreatment but not by any particular disorder or depression severity. Among all tested variables, the affective touch awareness correlated with autistic traits only - in patients as well as in comparison subjects. Taken together, individuals with mental health issues have a lower baseline of expression and reception of affective touch. Autistic traits and childhood maltreatment modulate the experience of affective touch. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Contact high: Mania proneness and positive perception of emotional touches.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piff, Paul K; Purcell, Amanda; Gruber, June; Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher

    2012-01-01

    How do extreme degrees of positive emotion-such as those characteristic of mania-influence emotion perception? The present study investigated how mania proneness, assessed using the Hypomanic Personality Scale, influences the perception of emotion via touch. Using a validated dyadic interaction paradigm for communicating emotion through touch (Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, & Jaskolka, 2006), participants (N=53) received eight different touches to their forearm from a stranger and then identified the emotion via forced-choice methodology. Mania proneness predicted increased overall accuracy in touch perception, particularly for positive emotion touches, as well as the over-attribution of positive and under-attribution of negative emotions across all touches. These findings highlight the effects of positive emotion extremes on the perception of emotion in social interactions.

  4. A neural interface provides long-term stable natural touch perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tan, Daniel W; Schiefer, Matthew A; Keith, Michael W; Anderson, James Robert; Tyler, Joyce; Tyler, Dustin J

    2014-10-08

    Touch perception on the fingers and hand is essential for fine motor control, contributes to our sense of self, allows for effective communication, and aids in our fundamental perception of the world. Despite increasingly sophisticated mechatronics, prosthetic devices still do not directly convey sensation back to their wearers. We show that implanted peripheral nerve interfaces in two human subjects with upper limb amputation provided stable, natural touch sensation in their hands for more than 1 year. Electrical stimulation using implanted peripheral nerve cuff electrodes that did not penetrate the nerve produced touch perceptions at many locations on the phantom hand with repeatable, stable responses in the two subjects for 16 and 24 months. Patterned stimulation intensity produced a sensation that the subjects described as natural and without "tingling," or paresthesia. Different patterns produced different types of sensory perception at the same location on the phantom hand. The two subjects reported tactile perceptions they described as natural tapping, constant pressure, light moving touch, and vibration. Changing average stimulation intensity controlled the size of the percept area; changing stimulation frequency controlled sensation strength. Artificial touch sensation improved the subjects' ability to control grasping strength of the prosthesis and enabled them to better manipulate delicate objects. Thus, electrical stimulation through peripheral nerve electrodes produced long-term sensory restoration after limb loss. Copyright © 2014, American Association for the Advancement of Science.

  5. Perception of 3-D location based on vision, touch, and extended touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Giudice, Nicholas A; Klatzky, Roberta L; Bennett, Christopher R; Loomis, Jack M

    2013-01-01

    Perception of the near environment gives rise to spatial images in working memory that continue to represent the spatial layout even after cessation of sensory input. As the observer moves, these spatial images are continuously updated. This research is concerned with (1) whether spatial images of targets are formed when they are sensed using extended touch (i.e., using a probe to extend the reach of the arm) and (2) the accuracy with which such targets are perceived. In Experiment 1, participants perceived the 3-D locations of individual targets from a fixed origin and were then tested with an updating task involving blindfolded walking followed by placement of the hand at the remembered target location. Twenty-four target locations, representing all combinations of two distances, two heights, and six azimuths, were perceived by vision or by blindfolded exploration with the bare hand, a 1-m probe, or a 2-m probe. Systematic errors in azimuth were observed for all targets, reflecting errors in representing the target locations and updating. Overall, updating after visual perception was best, but the quantitative differences between conditions were small. Experiment 2 demonstrated that auditory information signifying contact with the target was not a factor. Overall, the results indicate that 3-D spatial images can be formed of targets sensed by extended touch and that perception by extended touch, even out to 1.75 m, is surprisingly accurate.

  6. Texture design for light touch perception

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, S.; Zeng, X.; Matthews, D.T.A.; Igartua, A.; Rodriguez Vidal, E.; Fortes, J. Contreras; Van Der Heide, E.

    This study focused on active light touch with predefined textures specially-designed for tactile perception. The counter-body material is stainless steel sheet. Three geometric structures (grid, crater and groove) were fabricated by pulsed laser surface texturing. A total number of twenty volunteers

  7. Human perception of shape from touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kappers, Astrid M L

    2011-01-01

    In this paper, I focus on the role of active touch in three aspects of shape perception and discrimination studies. First an overview is given of curvature discrimination experiments. The most prominent result is that first-order stimulus information (that is, the difference in attitude or slope

  8. Does affective touch influence the virtual reality full body illusion?

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Jong, Jutta R; Keizer, Anouk; Engel, Manja M; Dijkerman, H Chris

    2017-06-01

    The sense of how we experience our physical body as our own represents a fundamental component of human self-awareness. Body ownership can be studied with bodily illusions which are generated by inducing a visuo-tactile conflict where individuals experience illusionary ownership over a fake body or body part, such as a rubber hand. Previous studies showed that different types of touch modulate the strength of experienced ownership over a rubber hand. Specifically, participants experienced more ownership after the rubber hand illusion was induced through affective touch vs non-affective touch. It is, however, unclear whether this effect would also occur for an entire fake body. The aim of this study was, therefore, to investigate whether affective touch modulates the strength of ownership in a virtual reality full body illusion. To elicit this illusion, we used slow (3 cm/s; affective touch) and fast (30 cm/s; non-affective touch) stroking velocities on the participants' abdomen. Both stroking velocities were performed either synchronous or asynchronous (control condition), while participants viewed a virtual body from a first-person-perspective. In our first study, we found that participants experienced more subjective ownership over a virtual body in the affective touch condition, compared to the non-affective touch condition. In our second study, we found higher levels of subjective ownership for synchronous stimulation, compared to asynchronous, for both touch conditions, but failed to replicate the findings from study 1 that show a difference between affective and non-affective touch. We, therefore, cannot conclude unequivocally that affective touch enhances the full-body illusion. Future research is required to study the effects of affective touch on body ownership.

  9. Effect of Waveform on Tactile Perception by Electrovibration Displayed on Touch Screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vardar, Yasemin; Guclu, Burak; Basdogan, Cagatay

    2017-01-01

    In this study, we investigated the effect of input voltage waveform on our haptic perception of electrovibration on touch screens. Through psychophysical experiments performed with eight subjects, we first measured the detection thresholds of electrovibration stimuli generated by sinusoidal and square voltages at various fundamental frequencies. We observed that the subjects were more sensitive to stimuli generated by square wave voltage than sinusoidal one for frequencies lower than 60 Hz. Using Matlab simulations, we showed that the sensation difference of waveforms in low fundamental frequencies occurred due to the frequency-dependent electrical properties of human skin and human tactile sensitivity. To validate our simulations, we conducted a second experiment with another group of eight subjects. We first actuated the touch screen at the threshold voltages estimated in the first experiment and then measured the contact force and acceleration acting on the index fingers of the subjects moving on the screen with a constant speed. We analyzed the collected data in the frequency domain using the human vibrotactile sensitivity curve. The results suggested that Pacinian channel was the primary psychophysical channel in the detection of the electrovibration stimuli caused by all the square-wave inputs tested in this study. We also observed that the measured force and acceleration data were affected by finger speed in a complex manner suggesting that it may also affect our haptic perception accordingly.

  10. C-Tactile Mediated Erotic Touch Perception Relates to Sexual Desire and Performance in a Gender-Specific Way

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bendas, Johanna; Georgiadis, Janniko R.; Ritschel, Gerhard; Olausson, Hakan; Weidner, Kerstin; Croy, Ilona

    Background: Unmyelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors-the so-called C-tactile (CT) afferents-play a crucial role in the perception and conduction of caressing and pleasant touch sensations and significantly contribute to the concept of erotic touch perception. Aim: To investigate the relations

  11. C-tactile afferent stimulating touch carries a positive affective value.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pawling, Ralph; Cannon, Peter R; McGlone, Francis P; Walker, Susannah C

    2017-01-01

    The rewarding sensation of touch in affiliative interactions is hypothesized to be underpinned by a specialized system of nerve fibers called C-Tactile afferents (CTs), which respond optimally to slowly moving, gentle touch, typical of a caress. However, empirical evidence to support the theory that CTs encode socially relevant, rewarding tactile information in humans is currently limited. While in healthy participants, touch applied at CT optimal velocities (1-10cm/sec) is reliably rated as subjectively pleasant, neuronopathy patients lacking large myelinated afferents, but with intact C-fibres, report that the conscious sensation elicited by stimulation of CTs is rather vague. Given this weak perceptual impact the value of self-report measures for assessing the specific affective value of CT activating touch appears limited. Therefore, we combined subjective ratings of touch pleasantness with implicit measures of affective state (facial electromyography) and autonomic arousal (heart rate) to determine whether CT activation carries a positive affective value. We recorded the activity of two key emotion-relevant facial muscle sites (zygomaticus major-smile muscle, positive affect & corrugator supercilii-frown muscle, negative affect) while participants evaluated the pleasantness of experimenter administered stroking touch, delivered using a soft brush, at two velocities (CT optimal 3cm/sec & CT non-optimal 30cm/sec), on two skin sites (CT innervated forearm & non-CT innervated palm). On both sites, 3cm/sec stroking touch was rated as more pleasant and produced greater heart rate deceleration than 30cm/sec stimulation. However, neither self-report ratings nor heart rate responses discriminated stimulation on the CT innervated arm from stroking of the non-CT innervated palm. In contrast, significantly greater activation of the zygomaticus major (smiling muscle) was seen specifically to CT optimal, 3cm/sec, stroking on the forearm in comparison to all other stimuli

  12. C-tactile afferent stimulating touch carries a positive affective value.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Ralph Pawling

    Full Text Available The rewarding sensation of touch in affiliative interactions is hypothesized to be underpinned by a specialized system of nerve fibers called C-Tactile afferents (CTs, which respond optimally to slowly moving, gentle touch, typical of a caress. However, empirical evidence to support the theory that CTs encode socially relevant, rewarding tactile information in humans is currently limited. While in healthy participants, touch applied at CT optimal velocities (1-10cm/sec is reliably rated as subjectively pleasant, neuronopathy patients lacking large myelinated afferents, but with intact C-fibres, report that the conscious sensation elicited by stimulation of CTs is rather vague. Given this weak perceptual impact the value of self-report measures for assessing the specific affective value of CT activating touch appears limited. Therefore, we combined subjective ratings of touch pleasantness with implicit measures of affective state (facial electromyography and autonomic arousal (heart rate to determine whether CT activation carries a positive affective value. We recorded the activity of two key emotion-relevant facial muscle sites (zygomaticus major-smile muscle, positive affect & corrugator supercilii-frown muscle, negative affect while participants evaluated the pleasantness of experimenter administered stroking touch, delivered using a soft brush, at two velocities (CT optimal 3cm/sec & CT non-optimal 30cm/sec, on two skin sites (CT innervated forearm & non-CT innervated palm. On both sites, 3cm/sec stroking touch was rated as more pleasant and produced greater heart rate deceleration than 30cm/sec stimulation. However, neither self-report ratings nor heart rate responses discriminated stimulation on the CT innervated arm from stroking of the non-CT innervated palm. In contrast, significantly greater activation of the zygomaticus major (smiling muscle was seen specifically to CT optimal, 3cm/sec, stroking on the forearm in comparison to all

  13. Affective Touch Enhances Self-Face Recognition During Multisensory Integration

    OpenAIRE

    Panagiotopoulou, Elena; Filippetti, Maria Laura; Tsakiris, Manos; Fotopoulou, Aikaterini

    2017-01-01

    Multisensory integration is a powerful mechanism for constructing body awareness and key for the sense of selfhood. Recent evidence has shown that the specialised C tactile modality that gives rise to feelings of pleasant, affective touch, can enhance the experience of body ownership during multisensory integration. Nevertheless, no study has examined whether affective touch can also modulate psychological identification with our face, the hallmark of our identity. The current study used the ...

  14. The Neurobiology Shaping Affective Touch: Expectation, Motivation, and Meaning in the Multisensory Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ellingsen, Dan-Mikael; Leknes, Siri; Løseth, Guro; Wessberg, Johan; Olausson, Håkan

    2016-01-01

    Inter-individual touch can be a desirable reward that can both relieve negative affect and evoke strong feelings of pleasure. However, if other sensory cues indicate it is undesirable to interact with the toucher, the affective experience of the same touch may be flipped to disgust. While a broad literature has addressed, on one hand the neurophysiological basis of ascending touch pathways, and on the other hand the central neurochemistry involved in touch behaviors, investigations of how external context and internal state shapes the hedonic value of touch have only recently emerged. Here, we review the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the integration of tactile “bottom–up” stimuli and “top–down” information into affective touch experiences. We highlight the reciprocal influences between gentle touch and contextual information, and consider how, and at which levels of neural processing, top-down influences may modulate ascending touch signals. Finally, we discuss the central neurochemistry, specifically the μ-opioids and oxytocin systems, involved in affective touch processing, and how the functions of these neurotransmitters largely depend on the context and motivational state of the individual. PMID:26779092

  15. The neurobiology shaping affective touch: Expectation, motivation, and meaning in the multisensory context

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dan-Mikael eEllingsen

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Inter-individual touch can be a desirable reward that can both relieve negative affect and evoke strong feelings of pleasure. However, if other sensory cues indicate it is undesirable to interact with the toucher, the affective experience of the same touch may be flipped to disgust. While a broad literature has addressed, on one hand the neurophysiological basis of ascending touch pathways, and on the other hand the central neurochemistry involved in touch behaviors, investigations of how external context and internal state shapes the hedonic value of touch have only recently emerged. Here, we review the psychological and neurobiological mechanisms responsible for the integration of tactile bottom-up stimuli and top-down information into affective touch experiences. We highlight the reciprocal influences between gentle touch and contextual information, and consider how, and at which levels of neural processing, top-down influences may modulate ascending touch signals. Finally, we discuss the central neurochemistry, specifically the µ-opioids and oxytocin systems, involved in affective touch processing, and how the functions of these neurotransmitters largely depend on the context and motivational state of the individual.

  16. Mutual regulation between infant facial affect and maternal touch in depressed and nondepressed dyads

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Egmose, Ida; Cordes, Katharina; Smith-Nielsen, Johanne

    2017-01-01

    research suggests that touch is an important means through which parents regulate their infants’ affects. Also, previous research has shown that post-partum depressed (PPD) mothers and nonclinical mothers differ in their touching behaviors when interacting with their infants. We examined the affect......-regulating function of affectionate, caregiving and playful maternal touch in 24 PPD and 47 nonclinical mother-infant dyads when infants were four months old. In order to investigate the direction of effects and to account for repeated observations, the data were analysed using time-window sequential analysis......, only in the PPD dyads, were the mothers more likely to initiate affectionate touch when their infants were displaying negative facial affect. Our results also showed that mothers use specific touch types to regulate infants’ negative and positive affects; infants are more likely to initiate positive...

  17. C-Tactile Mediated Erotic Touch Perception Relates to Sexual Desire and Performance in a Gender-Specific Way.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bendas, Johanna; Georgiadis, Janniko R; Ritschel, Gerhard; Olausson, Håkan; Weidner, Kerstin; Croy, Ilona

    2017-05-01

    Unmyelinated low-threshold mechanoreceptors-the so-called C-tactile (CT) afferents-play a crucial role in the perception and conduction of caressing and pleasant touch sensations and significantly contribute to the concept of erotic touch perception. To investigate the relations between sexual desire and sexual performance and the perception of touch mediated by CT afferents. Seventy healthy participants (28 men, 42 women; mean age ± SD = 24.84 ± 4.08 years, range = 18-36 years) underwent standardized and highly controlled stroking stimulation that varied in the amount of CT fiber stimulation by changing stroking velocity (CT optimal = 1, 3 and 10 cm/s; CT suboptimal = 0.1, 0.3, and 30 cm/s). Participants rated the perceived pleasantness, eroticism, and intensity of the applied tactile stimulation on a visual analog scale, completed the Sexual Desire Inventory, and answered questions about sexual performance. Ratings of perceived eroticism of touch were related to self-report levels of sexual desire and sexual performance. Pleasantness and eroticism ratings showed similar dependence on stroking velocity that aligned with the activity of CT afferents. Erotic touch perception was related to sexual desire and sexual performance in a gender-specific way. In women, differences in eroticism ratings between CT optimal and suboptimal velocities correlated positively with desire for sexual interaction. In contrast, in men, this difference correlated to a decreased frequency and longer duration of partnered sexual activities. The present results lay the foundation for future research assessing these relations in patients with specific impairments of sexual functioning (eg, hypoactive sexual desire disorder). The strength of the study is the combination of standardized neurophysiologic methods and behavioral data. A clear limitation of the study design is the exclusion of exact data on the female menstrual cycle and the recruitment of an inhomogeneous sample

  18. Integrative processing of touch and affect in social perception: an fMRI study

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sjoerd eEbisch

    2016-05-01

    Full Text Available Social perception commonly employs multiple sources of information. The present study aimed at investigating the integrative processing of affective social signals. Task-related and task-free functional magnetic resonance imaging was performed in 26 healthy adult participants during a social perception task concerning dynamic visual stimuli simultaneously depicting facial expressions of emotion and tactile sensations that could be either congruent or incongruent. Confounding effects due to affective valence, inhibitory top-down influences, cross-modal integration, and conflict processing were minimized. The results showed that the perception of congruent, compared to incongruent stimuli, elicited enhanced neural activity in a set of brain regions including left amygdala, bilateral posterior cingulate cortex (PCC, and left superior parietal cortex. These congruency effects did not differ as a function of emotion or sensation. A complementary task-related functional interaction analysis preliminarily suggested that amygdala activity depended on previous processing stages in fusiform gyrus and PCC. The findings provide support for the integrative processing of social information about others' feelings from manifold bodily sources (sensory-affective information in amygdala and PCC. Given that the congruent stimuli were also judged as being more self-related and more familiar in terms of personal experience in an independent sample of participants, we speculate that such integrative processing might be mediated by the linking of external stimuli with self-experience. Finally, the prediction of task-related responses in amygdala by intrinsic functional connectivity between amygdala and PCC during a task-free state implies a neuro-functional basis for an individual predisposition for the integrative processing of social stimulus content.

  19. Touch perceptions across skin sites: differences between sensitivity, direction discrimination and pleasantness

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    Rochelle eAckerley

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available Human skin is innervated with different tactile afferents over the body, which are found at varying densities. We investigate how the relationships between tactile pleasantness, sensitivity and discrimination differ across the skin. Tactile pleasantness was assessed by stroking a soft brush over the skin, using five velocities (0.3, 1, 3, 10, 30 cm s-1, known to differentiate hedonic touch, and pleasantness ratings were gained. The ratings velocity-profile is known to correlate with firing in unmyelinated C-tactile afferents. Tactile sensitivity thresholds were determined using monofilament force detection and the tactile discrimination level was obtained in the direction discrimination of a moving probe; both tasks readily activate myelinated touch receptors. Perceptions were measured over five skin sites: forehead, arm, palm, thigh and shin. The assessment of tactile pleasantness over the skin resulted in a preference for the middle velocities (1-10 cm s-1, where higher ratings were gained compared to the slowest and fastest velocities. This preference in tactile pleasantness was found across all the skin sites, apart from at the palm, where no decrease in pleasantness for the faster stroking velocities was seen. We find that tactile sensitivity and discrimination vary across the skin, where the forehead and palm show increased acuity. Tactile sensitivity and discrimination levels also correlated significantly, although the tactile acuity did not relate to the perceived pleasantness of touch. Tactile pleasantness varied in a subtle way across skin sites, where the middle velocities were always rated as the most pleasant, but the ratings at hairy skin sites were more receptive to changes in stroking velocity. We postulate that although the mechanoreceptive afferent physiology may be different over the skin, the perception of pleasant touch can be interpreted using all of the available incoming somatosensory information in combination with

  20. Pleasant touch moderates the subjective but not objective aspects of body perception

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    Donna Marie Lloyd

    2013-12-01

    Full Text Available Un-myelinated C tactile afferents (CT afferents are a key finding in affective touch. These fibres, which activate in response to a caress-like touch to hairy skin (CT afferents are not found in palm skin, may have more in common with interoceptive systems encoding body ownership, than afferent systems processing other tactile stimuli. We tested whether subjective embodiment of a rubber hand (measured through questionnaire items was increased when tactile stimulation was applied to the back of the hand at a rate optimal for CT afferents (3cm/s vs. stimulation of glabrous skin (on the palm of the hand or at a non-optimal rate (30cm/s, which should not activate these fibres. We also collected ratings of tactile pleasantness and a measure of perceived limb position, proprioceptive drift, which is mediated by different mechanisms of multisensory integration than those responsible for feelings of ownership. The results of a multiple regression analysis revealed that proprioceptive drift was a significant predictor of subjective strength of the illusion when tactile stimuli were applied to the back of the hand, regardless of stroking speed. This relationship was modified by pleasantness, with higher ratings when stimulation was applied to the back of the hand at the slower vs. faster stroking speed. Pleasantness was also a unique predictor of illusion strength when fast stroking was applied to the palm of the hand. However, there were no conditions under which pleasantness was a significant predictor of drift. Since the illusion was demonstrated at a non-optimal stroking speed an integrative role for CT afferents within the illusion cannot be fully supported. Pleasant touch, however, does moderate the subjective aspects of the rubber hand illusion, which under certain tactile conditions may interact with proprioceptive information about the body or have a unique influence on subjective body perception.

  1. Playing with Senses in VR: Alternate Perceptions Combining Vision and Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lecuyer, Anatole

    2017-01-01

    Virtual reality is an immersive experience based on computer-generated stimulations perceived with multiple sensory channels. It is possible to manipulate these sensory stimulations independently and create conflicting situations in which, for instance, vision and touch are spatially and/or temporally inconsistent. This article discusses how to exploit these ambiguous sensorial situations to generate new kinds of percept using three types of examples: pseudo-haptic effects, self-motion sensations, and body-ownership illusions.

  2. Identification of nonviable genes affecting touch sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans using neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference.

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    Chen, Xiaoyin; Cuadros, Margarete Diaz; Chalfie, Martin

    2015-01-09

    Caenorhabditis elegans senses gentle touch along the body via six touch receptor neurons. Although genetic screens and microarray analyses have identified several genes needed for touch sensitivity, these methods miss pleiotropic genes that are essential for the viability, movement, or fertility of the animals. We used neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference to screen genes that cause lethality or paralysis when mutated, and we identified 61 such genes affecting touch sensitivity, including five positive controls. We confirmed 18 genes by using available alleles, and further studied one of them, tag-170, now renamed txdc-9. txdc-9 preferentially affects anterior touch response but is needed for tubulin acetylation and microtubule formation in both the anterior and posterior touch receptor neurons. Our results indicate that neuronally enhanced feeding RNA interference screens complement traditional mutageneses by identifying additional nonviable genes needed for specific neuronal functions. Copyright © 2015 Chen et al.

  3. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

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    Stefanie M. Erk

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video can (1 enhance recovery from sadness, (2 enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3 increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble, which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses and subjective (questionnaires data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was

  4. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Erk, Stefanie M; Toet, Alexander; Van Erp, Jan B F

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto participants first watched a sad movie clip to elicit sadness, followed by a funny one to stimulate recovery from sadness. While watching the funny clip they signaled a hypothetical fellow participant every time they felt amused. In the experimental condition the participants responded by pressing a hand-held two-way mediated touch device (a Frebble), which also provided haptic feedback via simulated hand squeezes. In the control condition they responded by pressing a button and they received abstract visual feedback. Objective (heart rate, galvanic skin conductance, number and duration of joystick or Frebble presses) and subjective (questionnaires) data were collected to assess the emotional reactions of the participants. The subjective measurements confirmed that the sad movie successfully induced sadness while the funny movie indeed evoked more positive feelings. Although their ranking agreed with the subjective measurements, the physiological measurements confirmed this conclusion only for the funny movie. The results show that recovery from movie induced sadness, the affective experience of the amusing movie, and trust towards the communication partner did not differ between both experimental conditions. Hence, feedback via mediated hand touching did not enhance either of these factors compared to visual feedback. Further analysis of the data showed that participants scoring low on Extraversion (i.e., persons that are more introvert) or low on Touch Receptivity (i.e., persons who do not like to be touched by others) felt better understood by their communication partner when receiving mediated touch feedback instead of visual feedback, while the opposite was found for

  5. Touching my left elbow: the anatomical structure of the body affects the illusion of self-touch.

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    White, Rebekah C; Aimola Davies, Anne M

    2011-01-01

    A self-touch paradigm is used to create the illusion that one is touching one's own left elbow when one is actually touching the examiner's arm. Our new self-touch illusion is sensitive to the anatomical structure of the body: you can touch your left elbow with your right index finger but not with your left index finger. Illusion onset was faster and illusion ratings were higher when participants administered touch using the plausible right index finger compared with the implausible left index finger.

  6. Relationship between touch sensation of the affected hand and performance of valued activities in individuals with chronic stroke.

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    Hill, Valerie A; Fisher, Thomas; Schmid, Arlene A; Crabtree, Jeffrey; Page, Stephen J

    2014-01-01

    To investigate the association between touch sensation of the affected hand and performance and satisfaction with performance of valued activities in individuals with chronic stroke. Using a cross-sectional study design, this study correlated factors related to hand sensation and activity performance in individuals with chronic stroke. The Touch Test Evaluators and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) were used. Correlations were used to determine the relationships between touch sensation of the affected hand and individuals' performance and satisfaction with performance of valued activities. There was a good to excellent relationship between sensation and performance and satisfaction with performance of valued activities for individuals with intact touch sensation of the affected hand who scored higher on the COPM. There was little to no relationship between touch sensation of the affected hand and performance of valued activities for individuals with impaired sensation. This is the first study to relate touch sensation of the affected hand and performance and satisfaction with performance of valued activities in individuals with stroke. The findings suggest that rehabilitation therapists need to continue to address sensory function in evaluation and intervention as it relates to performance in valued activities. This study serves as a foundation for future research in sensation and performance of valued activities in individuals with chronic stroke.

  7. Pain relief by touch: a quantitative approach.

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    Mancini, Flavia; Nash, Thomas; Iannetti, Gian Domenico; Haggard, Patrick

    2014-03-01

    Pain relief by touch has been studied for decades in pain neuroscience. Human perceptual studies revealed analgesic effects of segmental tactile stimulation, as compared to extrasegmental touch. However, the spatial organisation of touch-pain interactions within a single human dermatome has not been investigated yet. In 2 experiments we tested whether, how, and where within a dermatome touch modulates the perception of laser-evoked pain. We measured pain perception using intensity ratings, qualitative descriptors, and signal detection measures of sensitivity and response bias. Touch concurrent with laser pulses produced a significant analgesia, and reduced the sensitivity in detecting the energy of laser stimulation, implying a functional loss of information within the ascending Aδ pathway. Touch also produced a bias to judge laser stimuli as less painful. This bias decreased linearly when the distance between the laser and tactile stimuli increased. Thus, our study provides evidence for a spatial organisation of intrasegmental touch-pain interactions. Copyright © 2013 International Association for the Study of Pain. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  8. Smile intensity and warm touch as thin slices of child and family affective style.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oveis, Christopher; Gruber, June; Keltner, Dacher; Stamper, Juliet L; Boyce, W Thomas

    2009-08-01

    The authors investigate the claim that thin slices of expressive behavior serve as reliable indicators of affective style in children and their families. Using photographs, the authors assessed smile intensity and tactile contact in kindergartners and their families. Consistent with claims that smiling and touch communicate positive emotion, measures of children's smile intensity and warm family touch were correlated across classroom and family contexts. Consistent with studies of parent-child personality associations, parents' warm smiles and negative facial displays resembled those of their children. Finally, consistent with observed relations between adult personality and positive display, children's smiling behavior in the classroom correlated with parent ratings of children's Extraversion/Surgency. These results highlight the utility of thin slices of smiling and touch as indicators of child and family affective style. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

  9. The (Null) Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koppel, Lina; Andersson, David; Morrison, India; Västfjäll, Daniel; Tinghög, Gustav

    2017-01-01

    Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants ( n = 120) were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition) or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects), while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task), altruism (donating money to a charitable organization), and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task). We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch-and, by extension, oxytocin-in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

  10. Perceptions, experiences and preferences of patients receiving a clinician's touch during intimate care and procedures: a qualitative systematic review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    O'Lynn, Chad; Cooper, Adam; Blackwell, Lisa

    2017-11-01

    Clinical practice frequently involves the practitioner touching patients' bodies in areas that are highly personal. If inappropriately performed, such intimate touch may result in much anxiety, confusion and misinterpretation. Examination of evidence is necessary to guide practice in this area to mitigate risks and foster optimal clinician-patient relations and care. The objective of this qualitative systematic review was to identify and synthesize findings on the perceptions, experiences and preferences of patients receiving a clinician's touch during intimate care and procedures INCLUSION CRITERIA TYPES OF PARTICIPANTS: The current review considered studies that included patients who had received a clinician's touch during intimate care and procedures. The current review considered qualitative studies that evaluated patients' perceptions, experiences and preferences of a clinician's touch during intimate care and procedures. The current review considered studies that collected qualitative data and included studies using designs such as phenomenology, grounded theory, ethnography, action research, qualitative description, focus group methodology and feminist research. In the absence of research studies, other text such as opinion papers and reports were considered. The current review considered studies that included patients' perceptions, experiences and preferences of a clinician's touch during intimate care and procedures. Intimate care is likely to occur in any clinical setting where patients need assistance with personal care, where physical examinations occur, or in settings were gynecologic, genitourinary, lower intestinal, dermatologic, cardiac or other procedures involving highly personal areas of the body are performed. A three-step search strategy was used to find published and unpublished studies in English from 1970 to 2016, searching various databases which included searches of reference lists of studies selected for appraisal. Included studies were

  11. A Modified Tactile Brush Algorithm for Complex Touch Gestures

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ragan, Eric [Texas A& M University

    2015-01-01

    Several researchers have investigated phantom tactile sensation (i.e., the perception of a nonexistent actuator between two real actuators) and apparent tactile motion (i.e., the perception of a moving actuator due to time delays between onsets of multiple actuations). Prior work has focused primarily on determining appropriate Durations of Stimulation (DOS) and Stimulus Onset Asynchronies (SOA) for simple touch gestures, such as a single finger stroke. To expand upon this knowledge, we investigated complex touch gestures involving multiple, simultaneous points of contact, such as a whole hand touching the arm. To implement complex touch gestures, we modified the Tactile Brush algorithm to support rectangular areas of tactile stimulation.

  12. Smile Intensity and Warm Touch as Thin Slices of Child and Family Affective Style

    OpenAIRE

    Oveis, Christopher; Gruber, June; Keltner, Dacher; Stamper, Juliet L.; Boyce, W. Thomas

    2009-01-01

    We investigate the claim that thin slices of expressive behavior serve as reliable indicators of affective style in children and their families. Using photographs, we assessed smile intensity and tactile contact in kindergartners and their families. Consistent with claims that smiling and touch communicate positive emotion, measures of children’s smile intensity and warm family touch were correlated across classroom and family contexts. Consistent with studies of parent-child personality asso...

  13. Reading touch screen storybooks with mothers negatively affects seven-year-old readers’ comprehension but enriches emotional engagement

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kirsty Mhairi Ross

    2016-11-01

    Full Text Available Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22 were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print versions. Touch screen interactivity had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother-child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help. Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and length of the shared reading session and

  14. Reading Touch Screen Storybooks with Mothers Negatively Affects 7-Year-Old Readers’ Comprehension but Enriches Emotional Engagement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ross, Kirsty M.; Pye, Rachel E.; Randell, Jordan

    2016-01-01

    Touch screen storybooks turn reading into an interactive multimedia experience, with hotspot-activated animations, sound effects, and games. Positive and negative effects of reading multimedia stories have been reported, but the underlying mechanisms which explain how children’s learning is affected remain uncertain. The present study examined the effect of storybook format (touch screen and print) on story comprehension, and considered how level of touch screen interactivity (high and low) and shared reading behaviors (cognitive and emotional scaffolding, emotional engagement) might contribute to comprehension. Seven-year-olds (n = 22) were observed reading one touch screen storybook and one print storybook with their mothers. Story comprehension was inferior for the touch screen storybooks compared to the print formats. Touch screen interactivity level had no significant effect on comprehension but did affect shared reading behaviors. The mother–child dyads spent less time talking about the story in the highly interactive touch screen condition, despite longer shared reading sessions because of touch screen interactions. Positive emotional engagement was greater for children and mothers in the highly interactive touch screen condition, due to additional positive emotions expressed during touch screen interactions. Negative emotional engagement was greater for children when reading and talking about the story in the highly interactive condition, and some mothers demonstrated negative emotional engagement with the touch screen activities. The less interactive touch screen storybook had little effect on shared reading behaviors, but mothers controlling behaviors were more frequent. Storybook format had no effect on the frequency of mothers’ cognitive scaffolding behaviors (comprehension questions, word help). Relationships between comprehension and shared reading behaviors were examined for each storybook, and although length of the shared reading session and

  15. The (Null Effect of Affective Touch on Betrayal Aversion, Altruism, and Risk Taking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lina Koppel

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Pleasant touch is thought to increase the release of oxytocin. Oxytocin, in turn, has been extensively studied with regards to its effects on trust and prosocial behavior, but results remain inconsistent. The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of touch on economic decision making. Participants (n = 120 were stroked on their left arm using a soft brush (touch condition or not at all (control condition; varied within subjects, while they performed a series of decision tasks assessing betrayal aversion (the Betrayal Aversion Elicitation Task, altruism (donating money to a charitable organization, and risk taking (the Balloon Analog Risk Task. We found no significant effect of touch on any of the outcome measures, neither within nor between subjects. Furthermore, effects were not moderated by gender or attachment. However, attachment avoidance had a significant effect on altruism in that those who were high in avoidance donated less money. Our findings contribute to the understanding of affective touch—and, by extension, oxytocin—in social behavior, and decision making by showing that touch does not directly influence performance in tasks involving risk and prosocial decisions. Specifically, our work casts further doubt on the validity of oxytocin research in humans.

  16. Seeing touch in the somatosensory cortex: a TMS study of the visual perception of touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bolognini, Nadia; Rossetti, Angela; Maravita, Angelo; Miniussi, Carlo

    2011-12-01

    Recent studies suggest the existence of a visuo-tactile mirror system, comprising the primary (SI) and secondary (SII) somatosensory cortices, which matches observed touch with felt touch. Here, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) was used to determine whether SI or SII play a functional role in the visual processing of tactile events. Healthy participants performed a visual discrimination task with tactile stimuli (a finger touching a hand) and a control task (a finger moving without touching). During both tasks, rTMS was applied over either SI or SII, and to the occipital cortex. rTMS over SI selectively reduced subject performance for interpreting whether a contralateral visual tactile stimulus contains a tactile event, whereas SII stimulation impaired visual processing regardless of the tactile component. These findings provide evidence for a multimodal sensory-motor system with mirror properties, where somatic and visual properties of action converge. SI, a cortical area traditionally viewed as modality-specific, is selectively implicated in the visual processing of touch. These results are in line with the existence of a sensory mirror system mediating the embodied simulation concept. Copyright © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  17. Mirror-Touch and Ticker Tape Perceptions in Synesthesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Charlotte Anne Chun

    2013-11-01

    Full Text Available A fundamental question in the field of synesthesia is whether it is associated with other cognitive phenomena. The current study examined synesthesia’s connections with phenomenal traits of mirror-touch and ticker tape experiences, as well as the representation of the three phenomena in the population, across gender and domain of work/study. Mirror-touch is the automatic, involuntary experience of tactile sensation on one's own body when others are being touched. For example, seeing another person’s arm being stroked can evoke physical touch sensation on one’s own arm. Ticker tape is the automatic visualization of spoken words or thoughts, such as a teleprompter. For example, when spoken to, a ticker taper might see mentally the spoken words displayed in front of his face or as coming out of the speaker’s mouth. To explore synesthesia’s associations with these phenomena, a diverse group (n=3,743 was systematically recruited from eight universities and one public museum in France to complete an online screening. Of the 1,017 eligible respondents, synesthetes (across all subtypes reported higher rates of mirror-touch and ticker tape than non-synesthetes, suggesting that synesthesia is associated with these phenomenal traits. However effect size was small and we could not rule out that response bias influenced these associations. Mirror-touch and ticker tape were independent. No differences were found across gender or domain of work and study in prevalence of synesthesia, mirror-touch or ticker tape. The prevalence of ticker tape, unknown so far, was estimated at about 7%, an intermediate rate between estimates of grapheme-color (2 to 4% and sequence-space synesthesia (9 to 14%. Within synesthesia, grapheme-personification, also called ordinal-linguistic personification was the most common subtype and was estimated around 12%. Co-occurences of the different types of synesthesia were higher than chance, though at the level of small effect

  18. How to Touch Humans : Guidelines for Social Agents and Robots that can Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van; Toet, A.

    2013-01-01

    Touch is an essential channel in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents currently lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their

  19. The ten rules of touch : Guidelines for social agents and robots that can touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van

    2012-01-01

    Touching is essential in interpersonal and affective communication, yet most social agents lack the capability to touch the user. In this paper we show the credibility of three premises that make the case that providing touch capability to social robots will increase their effectiveness in

  20. An fMRI study on cortical responses during active self-touch and passive touch from others

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Rochelle eAckerley

    2012-08-01

    Full Text Available Active, self-touch and the passive touch from an external source engage comparable afferent mechanoreceptors on the touched skin site. However, touch directed to glabrous skin compared to hairy skin will activate different types of afferent mechanoreceptors. Despite perceptual similarities between touch to different body sites, it is likely that the touch information is processed differently. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI to elucidate the cortical differences in the neural signal of touch representations during active, self-touch and passive touch from another, to both glabrous (palm and hairy (arm skin, where a soft brush was used as the stimulus. There were two active touch conditions, where the participant used the brush in their right hand to stroke either their left palm or arm. There were two similar passive, touch conditions where the experimenter used an identical brush to stroke the same palm and arm areas on the participant. Touch on the left palm elicited a large, significant, positive blood-oxygenation level dependence (BOLD signal in right sensorimotor areas. Less extensive activity was found for touch to the arm. Separate somatotopical palm and arm representations were found in Brodmann area 3 of the right primary somatosensory cortex (SI and in both these areas, active stroking gave significantly higher signals than passive stroking. Active, self-touch elicited a positive BOLD signal in a network of sensorimotor cortical areas in the left hemisphere, compared to the resting baseline. In contrast, during passive touch, a significant negative BOLD signal was found in the left SI. Thus, each of the four conditions had a unique cortical signature despite similarities in afferent signalling or evoked perception. It is hypothesized that attentional mechanisms play a role in the modulation of the touch signal in the right SI, accounting for the differences found between active and passive touch.

  1. Touch increases autonomic coupling between romantic partners

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jonas eChatel-Goldman

    2014-03-01

    Full Text Available Interpersonal touch is of paramount importance in human social bonding and close relationships, allowing a unique channel for affect communication. So far the effect of touch on human physiology has been studied at an individual level. The present study aims at extending the study of affective touch from isolated individuals to truly interacting dyads. We have designed an ecological paradigm where romantic partners interact only via touch and we manipulate their empathic states. Simultaneously, we collected their autonomic activity (skin conductance, pulse, respiration. 14 couples participated to the experiment. We found that interpersonal touch increased coupling of electrodermal activity between the interacting partners, regardless the intensity and valence of the emotion felt. In addition, physical touch induced strong and reliable changes in physiological states within individuals. These results support an instrumental role of interpersonal touch for affective support in close relationships. Furthermore, they suggest that touch alone allows the emergence of a somatovisceral resonance between interacting individuals, which in turn is likely to form the prerequisites for emotional contagion and empathy.

  2. Touch in primary care consultations: qualitative investigation of doctors’ and patients’ perceptions

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cocksedge, Simon; George, Bethan; Renwick, Sophie; Chew-Graham, Carolyn A

    2013-01-01

    Background Good communication skills are integral to successful doctor–patient relationships. Communication may be verbal or non-verbal, and touch is a significant component, which has received little attention in the primary care literature. Touch may be procedural (part of a clinical task) or expressive (contact unrelated to a procedure/examination). Aim To explore GPs’ and patients’ experiences of using touch in consultations. Design and setting Qualitative study in urban and semi-rural areas of north-west England. Method Participating GPs recruited registered patients with whom they felt they had an ongoing relationship. Data were collected by semi-structured interviews and subjected to constant comparative qualitative analysis. Results All participants described the importance of verbal and non-verbal communication in developing relationships. Expressive touch was suggested to improve communication quality by most GPs and all patients. GPs reported a lower threshold for using touch with older patients or those who were bereaved, and with patients of the same sex as themselves. All patient responders felt touch on the hand or forearm was appropriate. GPs described limits to using touch, with some responders rarely using anything other than procedural touch. In contrast, most patient responders believed expressive touch was acceptable, especially in situations of distress. All GP responders feared misinterpretation in their use of touch, but patients were keen that these concerns should not prevent doctors using expressive touch in consultations. Conclusion Expressive touch improves interactions between GPs and patients. Increased educational emphasis on the conscious use of expressive touch would enhance clinical communication and, hence, perhaps patient wellbeing and care. PMID:23540485

  3. Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on central processing of CT-targeted and discriminatory touch in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Trotter, Paula Diane; McGlone, Francis; McKie, Shane; McFarquhar, Martyn; Elliott, Rebecca; Walker, Susannah Claire; Deakin, John Francis William

    2016-08-01

    C-tactile afferents (CTs) are slowly conducting nerve fibres, present only in hairy skin. They are optimally activated by slow, gentle stroking touch, such as those experienced during a caress. CT stimulation activates affective processing brain regions, alluding to their role in affective touch perception. We tested a theory that CT-activating touch engages the pro-social functions of serotonin, by determining whether reducing serotonin, through acute tryptophan depletion, diminishes subjective pleasantness and affective brain responses to gentle touch. A tryptophan depleting amino acid drink was administered to 16 healthy females, with a further 14 receiving a control drink. After 4 h, participants underwent an fMRI scan, during which time CT-innervated forearm skin and CT non-innervated finger skin was stroked with three brushes of differing texture, at CT-optimal force and velocity. Pleasantness ratings were obtained post scanning. The control group showed a greater response in ipsilateral orbitofrontal cortex to CT-activating forearm touch compared to touch to the finger where CTs are absent. This differential response was not present in the tryptophan depleted group. This interaction effect was significant. In addition, control participants showed a differential primary somatosensory cortex response to brush texture applied to the finger, a purely discriminatory touch response, which was not observed in the tryptophan depleted group. This interaction effect was also significant. Pleasantness ratings were similar across treatment groups. These results implicate serotonin in the differentiation between CT-activating and purely discriminatory touch responses. Such effects could contribute to some of the social abnormalities seen in psychiatric disorders associated with abnormal serotonin function. © 2016 Federation of European Neuroscience Societies and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  4. Nurses' comfort with touch and workplace well-being.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pedrazza, Monica; Minuzzo, Stefania; Berlanda, Sabrina; Trifiletti, Elena

    2015-06-01

    Touch is an essential part of caregiving and has been proved to be useful to reduce pain. Nevertheless, little attention has been paid to nurses' perceptions of touch. The aim of this article was to examine the relationship between nurses' feelings of comfort with touch and their well-being at work. A sample of 241 nurses attending a pain management training course completed a questionnaire, including the following measures: Comfort with Touch (CT) scale (task-oriented contact, touch promoting physical comfort, touch providing emotional containment), Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI; emotional exhaustion, cynicism), and Job Satisfaction. Results of structural equation models showed that touch providing emotional containment was the main predictor of emotional exhaustion. Emotional exhaustion, in turn, was positively related to cynicism and negatively related to job satisfaction. In addition, the direct path from touch providing emotional containment to cynicism was significant. Practical implications of the findings are discussed. © The Author(s) 2014.

  5. Touch communicates distinct emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher; App, Betsy; Bulleit, Brittany A; Jaskolka, Ariane R

    2006-08-01

    The study of emotional signaling has focused almost exclusively on the face and voice. In 2 studies, the authors investigated whether people can identify emotions from the experience of being touched by a stranger on the arm (without seeing the touch). In the 3rd study, they investigated whether observers can identify emotions from watching someone being touched on the arm. Two kinds of evidence suggest that humans can communicate numerous emotions with touch. First, participants in the United States (Study 1) and Spain (Study 2) could decode anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy via touch at much-better-than-chance levels. Second, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. In Study 3, the authors provide evidence that participants can accurately decode distinct emotions by merely watching others communicate via touch. The findings are discussed in terms of their contributions to affective science and the evolution of altruism and cooperation. (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved

  6. Reach out and touch somebody's virtual hand : Affectively connected through mediated touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van; Petrignani, F.F.; Dufrasnes, M.H.; Sahhashivan, A.

    2013-01-01

    We present the design of a haptic computer accessory that adds the experience of touch to online conversations. It enables dyads to exchange the physical experience of holding hands regardless of distance and location. Text, speech and video communication systems support the transmission of several

  7. Social touch and human development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cascio, Carissa J; Moore, David; McGlone, Francis

    2018-04-24

    Social touch is a powerful force in human development, shaping social reward, attachment, cognitive, communication, and emotional regulation from infancy and throughout life. In this review, we consider the question of how social touch is defined from both bottom-up and top-down perspectives. In the former category, there is a clear role for the C-touch (CT) system, which constitutes a unique submodality that mediates affective touch and contrasts with discriminative touch. Top-down factors such as culture, personal relationships, setting, gender, and other contextual influences are also important in defining and interpreting social touch. The critical role of social touch throughout the lifespan is considered, with special attention to infancy and young childhood, a time during which social touch and its neural, behavioral, and physiological contingencies contribute to reinforcement-based learning and impact a variety of developmental trajectories. Finally, the role of social touch in an example of disordered development -autism spectrum disorder-is reviewed. Copyright © 2018. Published by Elsevier Ltd.

  8. A Sensorimotor Signature of the Transition to Conscious Social Perception: Co-regulation of Active and Passive Touch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Hiroki Kojima

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available It is not yet well understood how we become conscious of the presence of other people as being other subjects in their own right. Developmental and phenomenological approaches are converging on a relational hypothesis: my perception of a “you” is primarily constituted by another subject’s attention being directed toward “me.” This is particularly the case when my body is being physically explored in an intentional manner. We set out to characterize the sensorimotor signature of the transition to being aware of the other by re-analyzing time series of embodied interactions between pairs of adults (recorded during a “perceptual crossing” experiment. Measures of turn-taking and movement synchrony were used to quantify social coordination, and transfer entropy was used to quantify direction of influence. We found that the transition leading to one’s conscious perception of the other’s presence was indeed characterized by a significant increase in one’s passive reception of the other’s tactile stimulations. Unexpectedly, one’s clear experience of such passive touch was consistently followed by a switch to active touching of the other, while the other correspondingly became more passive, which suggests that this intersubjective experience was reciprocally co-regulated by both participants.

  9. Touch for Socioemotional and Physical Well-Being: A Review

    Science.gov (United States)

    Field, Tiffany

    2010-01-01

    This review briefly summarizes recent empirical research on touch. The research includes the role of touch in early development, touch deprivation, touch aversion, emotions that can be conveyed by touch, the importance of touch for interpersonal relationships and how friendly touch affects compliance in different situations. MRI data are reviewed…

  10. Touch massage, a rewarding experience.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindgren, Lenita; Jacobsson, Maritha; Lämås, Kristina

    2014-12-01

    This study aims to describe and analyze healthy individuals' expressed experiences of touch massage (TM). Fifteen healthy participants received whole body touch massage during 60 minutes for two separate occasions. Interviews were analyzed by narrative analysis. Four identifiable storyline was found, Touch massage as an essential need, in this storyline the participants talked about a desire and need for human touch and TM. Another storyline was about, Touch massage as a pleasurable experience and the participants talked about the pleasure of having had TM. In the third storyline Touch massage as a dynamic experience, the informants talked about things that could modulate the experience of receiving TM. In the last storyline, Touch massage influences self-awareness, the participants described how TM affected some of their psychological and physical experiences. Experiences of touch massage was in general described as pleasant sensations and the different storylines could be seen in the light of rewarding experiences. © The Author(s) 2014.

  11. Blame it on the bossa nova: Transfer of perceived sexiness from music to touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fritz, Thomas Hans; Brummerloh, Berit; Urquijo, Maria; Wegner, Katharina; Reimer, Enrico; Gutekunst, Sven; Schneider, Lydia; Smallwood, Jonathan; Villringer, Arno

    2017-09-01

    Emotion elicited through music transfers to subsequent processing of facial expressions. Music may accordingly function as a social technology by promoting social bonding. Here, we investigated whether music would cross-modally influence the perception of sensual touch, a behavior related to mating. A robot applied precisely controlled gentle touch to a group of healthy participants while they listened to music that varied with respect to its perceived sexiness. As the perceived sexiness of the music increased, so did the subjective sexiness of the touch stimulations. In short, the perception of sexiness transferred from music to touch. Because sensual touch is key to mating behavior and relates to procreation, this association has implications for the universality and evolutionary significance of music. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2017 APA, all rights reserved).

  12. An Empirical Study of User Experience on Touch Mice

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chou, Jyh Rong

    2016-01-01

    The touch mouse is a new type of computer mouse that provides users with a new way of touch-based environment to interact with computers. For more than a decade, user experience (UX) has grown into a core concept of human-computer interaction (HCI), describing a user's perceptions and responses that result from the use of a product in a particular…

  13. Encoding of Touch Intensity But Not Pleasantness in Human Primary Somatosensory Cortex

    Science.gov (United States)

    Laubacher, Claire M.; Olausson, Håkan; Wang, Binquan; Spagnolo, Primavera A.; Bushnell, M. Catherine

    2016-01-01

    Growing interest in affective touch has delineated a neural network that bypasses primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Several recent studies, however, have cast doubt on the segregation of touch discrimination and affect, suggesting that S1 also encodes affective qualities. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to examine the role of S1 in processing touch intensity and pleasantness. Twenty-six healthy human adults rated brushing on the hand during fMRI. Intensity ratings significantly predicted activation in S1, whereas pleasantness ratings predicted activation only in the anterior cingulate cortex. Nineteen subjects also received inhibitory rTMS over right hemisphere S1 and the vertex (control). After S1 rTMS, but not after vertex rTMS, sensory discrimination was reduced and subjects with reduced sensory discrimination rated touch as more intense. In contrast, rTMS did not alter ratings of touch pleasantness. Our findings support divergent neural processing of touch intensity and pleasantness, with affective touch encoded outside of S1. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Growing interest in affective touch has identified a neural network that bypasses primary somatosensory cortex (S1). Several recent studies, however, cast doubt on the separation of touch discrimination and affect. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation to demonstrate the representation of touch discrimination and intensity in S1, but the representation of pleasantness in the anterior cingulate cortex, not S1. Our findings support divergent neural processing of touch intensity and pleasantness, with affective touch encoded outside of S1. Our study contributes to growing delineation of the affective touch system, a crucial step in understanding its dysregulation in numerous clinical conditions such as autism, eating disorders, depression, and chronic pain. PMID:27225773

  14. "Atypical touch perception in MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation".

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bufalari, Ilaria; Porciello, Giuseppina; Aglioti, Salvatore Maria

    2015-01-01

    Mirror Touch Synesthetes (MTSs) feel touch while they observe others being touched. According to the authors, two complementary theoretical frameworks, the Threshold Theory and the Self-Other Theory, explain Mirror Touch Synesthesia (MTS). Based on the behavioral evidence that in MTSs the mere observation of touch is sufficient to elicit self-other merging (i.e., self-representation changes), a condition that in non-MTSs just elicits self-other sharing (i.e., mirroring activity without self-other blurring), and on the rTPJ anatomical alterations in MTS, we argue that MTS may derive from an abnormally plastic self-representation and atypical multisensory integrative mechanisms.

  15. Final Sampling Bias in Haptic Judgments: How Final Touch Affects Decision-Making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mitsuda, Takashi; Yoshioka, Yuichi

    2018-01-01

    When people make a choice between multiple items, they usually evaluate each item one after the other repeatedly. The effect of the order and number of evaluating items on one's choices is essential to understanding the decision-making process. Previous studies have shown that when people choose a favorable item from two items, they tend to choose the item that they evaluated last. This tendency has been observed regardless of sensory modalities. This study investigated the origin of this bias by using three experiments involving two-alternative forced-choice tasks using handkerchiefs. First, the bias appeared in a smoothness discrimination task, which indicates that the bias was not based on judgments of preference. Second, the handkerchief that was touched more often tended to be chosen more frequently in the preference task, but not in the smoothness discrimination task, indicating that a mere exposure effect enhanced the bias. Third, in the condition where the number of touches did not differ between handkerchiefs, the bias appeared when people touched a handkerchief they wanted to touch last, but not when people touched the handkerchief that was predetermined. This finding suggests a direct coupling between final voluntary touching and judgment.

  16. Prosthetic hand sensor placement: Analysis of touch perception during the grasp

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mirković Bojana

    2014-01-01

    Full Text Available Humans rely on their hands to perform everyday tasks. The hand is used as a tool, but also as the interface to “sense” the world. Current prosthetic hands are based on sophisticated multi-fingered structures, and include many sensors which counterpart natural proprioceptors and exteroceptors. The sensory information is used for control, but not sent to the user of the hand (amputee. Grasping without sensing is not good enough. This research is part of the development of the sensing interface for amputees, specifically addressing the analysis of human perception while grasping. The goal is to determine the small number of preferred positions of sensors on the prosthetic hand. This task has previously been approached by trying to replicate a natural sensory system characteristic for healthy humans, resulting in a multitude of redundant sensors and basic inability to make the patient aware of the sensor readings on the subconscious level. We based our artificial perception system on the reported sensations of humans when grasping various objects without seeing the objects (obstructed visual feedback. Subjects, with no known sensory deficits, were asked to report on the touch sensation while grasping. The analysis included objects of various sizes, weights, textures and temperatures. Based on this data we formed a map of the preferred positions for the sensors that is appropriate for five finger human-like robotic hand. The final map was intentionally minimized in size (number of sensors.

  17. Investigating Maternal Touch and Infants' Self-Regulatory Behaviours during a Modified Face-to-Face Still-Face with Touch Procedure

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jean, Amélie D. L.; Stack, Dale M.; Arnold, Sharon

    2014-01-01

    Maternal touch and infants' self-regulatory behaviours were examined during a modified Still-Face with Touch (SF?+?T) procedure. Mothers and their 5½-month-old infants participated in one period of Normal interaction followed by three SF?+?T periods. Maternal functions of touch, and infants' self-regulatory behaviour, affect, and…

  18. Affective State Influences Perception by Affecting Decision Parameters Underlying Bias and Sensitivity

    OpenAIRE

    Lynn, Spencer K.; Zhang, Xuan; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

    2012-01-01

    Studies of the effect of affect on perception often show consistent directional effects of a person’s affective state on perception. Unpleasant emotions have been associated with a “locally focused” style of stimulus evaluation, and positive emotions with a “globally focused” style. Typically, however, studies of affect and perception have not been conducted under the conditions of perceptual uncertainty and behavioral risk inherent to perceptual judgments outside the laboratory. We investiga...

  19. Affective state influences perception by affecting decision parameters underlying bias and sensitivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lynn, Spencer K; Zhang, Xuan; Barrett, Lisa Feldman

    2012-08-01

    Studies of the effect of affect on perception often show consistent directional effects of a person's affective state on perception. Unpleasant emotions have been associated with a "locally focused" style of stimulus evaluation, and positive emotions with a "globally focused" style. Typically, however, studies of affect and perception have not been conducted under the conditions of perceptual uncertainty and behavioral risk inherent to perceptual judgments outside the laboratory. We investigated the influence of perceivers' experienced affect (valence and arousal) on the utility of social threat perception by combining signal detection theory and behavioral economics. We compared 3 perceptual decision environments that systematically differed with respect to factors that underlie uncertainty and risk: the base rate of threat, the costs of incorrect identification threat, and the perceptual similarity of threats and nonthreats. We found that no single affective state yielded the best performance on the threat perception task across the 3 environments. Unpleasant valence promoted calibration of response bias to base rate and costs, high arousal promoted calibration of perceptual sensitivity to perceptual similarity, and low arousal was associated with an optimal adjustment of bias to sensitivity. However, the strength of these associations was conditional upon the difficulty of attaining optimal bias and high sensitivity, such that the effect of the perceiver's affective state on perception differed with the cause and/or level of uncertainty and risk.

  20. Using historical accounts of harpsichord touch to empirically investigate the production and perception of dynamics on the 1788 Taskin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    MacRitchie, Jennifer; Nuti, Giulia

    2015-01-01

    This article investigates the extent of production and perception of dynamic differences on a French historical harpsichord, extensively revised in 1788 by Pascal Taskin. A historical review reports on the descriptions of two different types of touch found in treatises of the 18th century. These two touches (loud/struck and soft/pressed) were used to perform single tones on the lower, upper, peau de buffle (PDB) registers (the last of which Taskin is credited with having invented) and the coupled 8-foot registers to investigate differences in dynamics. Acoustic measurements show varied differences of up to 11 dB for the two types of touch over different pitches in each register. The strongest difference is measured in the first harmonic of note F2 on the PDB. A listening experiment was conducted to test whether these differences are perceivable. Participants performed a discrimination task using pairs of single tones. Participants were able to perform significantly better than chance in correctly identifying whether pairs of single tones were same or different with respect to loudness [t(24) = 12.01, p < 0.001]. Accuracies were influenced by pitch and register, the PDB providing the strongest accuracies over the four registers tested.

  1. Using historical accounts of harpsichord touch to empirically investigate the production and perception of dynamics on the 1788 Taskin

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jennifer eMacritchie

    2015-03-01

    Full Text Available This article investigates the extent of production and perception of dynamic differences on a French historical harpsichord, extensively revised in 1788 by Pascal Taskin. A historical review reports on the descriptions of two different types of touch found in treatises of the eighteenth century. These two touches (loud/struck and soft/pressed were used to perform single tones on the lower, upper, peau de buffle registers (the last of which Taskin is credited with having invented and the coupled 8-foot registers to investigate differences in dynamics. Acoustic measurements show varied differences of up to 11dB for the two types of touch over different pitches in each register. The strongest difference is measured in the first harmonic of note F2 on the peau de buffle. A listening experiment was conducted to test whether these differences are perceivable. Participants performed a discrimination task using pairs of single tones. Participants were able to perform significantly better than chance in correctly identifying whether pairs of single tones were same or different with respect to loudness (t (24 = 12.01, p < .001. Accuracies were influenced by pitch and register, the peau de buffle providing the strongest accuracies over the four registers tested.

  2. How our body influences our perception of the world

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laurence Roy Harris

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Incorporating the fact that the senses are embodied is necessary for an organism to interpret sensory information. Before a unified perception of the world can be formed, sensory signals must be processed with reference to body representation. The various attributes of the body such as shape, proportion, posture, and movement can be both derived from the various sensory systems and can affect perception of the world (including the body itself. In this review we examine the relationships between sensory and motor information, body representations, and perceptions of the world and the body. We provide several examples of how the body affects perception (including but not limited to body perception. First we show that body orientation effects visual distance perception and object orientation. Also, visual-auditory crossmodal-correspondences depend on the orientation of the body: audio high frequencies correspond to a visual up defined by both gravity and body coordinates. Next, we show that perceived locations of touch is affected by the orientation of the head and eyes on the body, suggesting a visual component to coding body locations. Additionally, the reference-frame used for coding touch locations seems to depend on whether gaze is static or moved relative to the body during the tactile task. The perceived attributes of the body such as body size, affect tactile perception even at the level of detection thresholds and two-point discrimination. Next, long-range tactile masking provides clues to the posture of the body in a canonical body schema. Finally, ownership of seen body parts depends on the orientation and perspective of the body part in view. Together, all of these findings demonstrate how sensory and motor information, body representations, and perceptions (of the body and the world are interdependent.

  3. Bodily action penetrates affective perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rigutti, Sara; Gerbino, Walter

    2016-01-01

    Fantoni & Gerbino (2014) showed that subtle postural shifts associated with reaching can have a strong hedonic impact and affect how actors experience facial expressions of emotion. Using a novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure (MAMIP), they found consistent congruency effects in participants who performed a facial emotion identification task after a sequence of visually-guided reaches: a face perceived as neutral in a baseline condition appeared slightly happy after comfortable actions and slightly angry after uncomfortable actions. However, skeptics about the penetrability of perception (Zeimbekis & Raftopoulos, 2015) would consider such evidence insufficient to demonstrate that observer’s internal states induced by action comfort/discomfort affect perception in a top-down fashion. The action-modulated mood might have produced a back-end memory effect capable of affecting post-perceptual and decision processing, but not front-end perception. Here, we present evidence that performing a facial emotion detection (not identification) task after MAMIP exhibits systematic mood-congruent sensitivity changes, rather than response bias changes attributable to cognitive set shifts; i.e., we show that observer’s internal states induced by bodily action can modulate affective perception. The detection threshold for happiness was lower after fifty comfortable than uncomfortable reaches; while the detection threshold for anger was lower after fifty uncomfortable than comfortable reaches. Action valence induced an overall sensitivity improvement in detecting subtle variations of congruent facial expressions (happiness after positive comfortable actions, anger after negative uncomfortable actions), in the absence of significant response bias shifts. Notably, both comfortable and uncomfortable reaches impact sensitivity in an approximately symmetric way relative to a baseline inaction condition. All of these constitute compelling evidence of a genuine top-down effect on

  4. Bodily action penetrates affective perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Carlo Fantoni

    2016-02-01

    Full Text Available Fantoni & Gerbino (2014 showed that subtle postural shifts associated with reaching can have a strong hedonic impact and affect how actors experience facial expressions of emotion. Using a novel Motor Action Mood Induction Procedure (MAMIP, they found consistent congruency effects in participants who performed a facial emotion identification task after a sequence of visually-guided reaches: a face perceived as neutral in a baseline condition appeared slightly happy after comfortable actions and slightly angry after uncomfortable actions. However, skeptics about the penetrability of perception (Zeimbekis & Raftopoulos, 2015 would consider such evidence insufficient to demonstrate that observer’s internal states induced by action comfort/discomfort affect perception in a top-down fashion. The action-modulated mood might have produced a back-end memory effect capable of affecting post-perceptual and decision processing, but not front-end perception. Here, we present evidence that performing a facial emotion detection (not identification task after MAMIP exhibits systematic mood-congruent sensitivity changes, rather than response bias changes attributable to cognitive set shifts; i.e., we show that observer’s internal states induced by bodily action can modulate affective perception. The detection threshold for happiness was lower after fifty comfortable than uncomfortable reaches; while the detection threshold for anger was lower after fifty uncomfortable than comfortable reaches. Action valence induced an overall sensitivity improvement in detecting subtle variations of congruent facial expressions (happiness after positive comfortable actions, anger after negative uncomfortable actions, in the absence of significant response bias shifts. Notably, both comfortable and uncomfortable reaches impact sensitivity in an approximately symmetric way relative to a baseline inaction condition. All of these constitute compelling evidence of a genuine top

  5. The Phenomenon of Touch in Architectural Design and a Field Study on Haptic Mapping

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pınar ÖKTEM ERKARTAL

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available Ocular-centrism is the utilitarian-aesthetic perspective which dominates the perception of spatial quality and architectural success in the West. In locating vision as the dominant discourse in architectural design, this perspective has been criticized for ignoring the physical and psychological relation created between subject and space during the spatial experience, sensual memory, movement and time. The phenomenon of touch, which may be defined as the interaction between architecture and subject dependent on physical and cognitive perception, offers another way of thinking and interpreting architecture, and constitutes an alternative starting point for design. The aim of this study was three-fold: to research and describe the phenomenon of touch in design concepts, to present the effects of hapticity in spatial experience on the user, and to present a visualization study for this phenomenon which is quite challenging to express. For the fieldwork, five buildings designed by Peter Zumthor were chosen. Zumthor stresses the importance of sensation, materiality and atmosphere in the architectural design process. Zumthor’s abstract design elements, their use in architectural space and the effect were determined using physical measurement. The findings were represented in “haptic mapping”. This visualization study consisted of a “haptic scatter chart”, “materiality- affect analysis” and “sensation analysis” and revealed that the phenomenon of touch and concepts identified it such as sensations, influence, materiality and mental associations are not abstract and inaccessible assumptions, but tools which can be included in the architectural design process.

  6. Rubber Hands Feel Touch, but Not in Blind Individuals

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ehrsson, H. Henrik

    2012-01-01

    Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005). We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10), all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12). The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception) revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals. PMID:22558268

  7. Rubber hands feel touch, but not in blind individuals.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valeria I Petkova

    Full Text Available Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005. We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10, all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12. The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals.

  8. Rubber hands feel touch, but not in blind individuals.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Petkova, Valeria I; Zetterberg, Hedvig; Ehrsson, H Henrik

    2012-01-01

    Psychology and neuroscience have a long-standing tradition of studying blind individuals to investigate how visual experience shapes perception of the external world. Here, we study how blind people experience their own body by exposing them to a multisensory body illusion: the somatic rubber hand illusion. In this illusion, healthy blindfolded participants experience that they are touching their own right hand with their left index finger, when in fact they are touching a rubber hand with their left index finger while the experimenter touches their right hand in a synchronized manner (Ehrsson et al. 2005). We compared the strength of this illusion in a group of blind individuals (n = 10), all of whom had experienced severe visual impairment or complete blindness from birth, and a group of age-matched blindfolded sighted participants (n = 12). The illusion was quantified subjectively using questionnaires and behaviorally by asking participants to point to the felt location of the right hand. The results showed that the sighted participants experienced a strong illusion, whereas the blind participants experienced no illusion at all, a difference that was evident in both tests employed. A further experiment testing the participants' basic ability to localize the right hand in space without vision (proprioception) revealed no difference between the two groups. Taken together, these results suggest that blind individuals with impaired visual development have a more veridical percept of self-touch and a less flexible and dynamic representation of their own body in space compared to sighted individuals. We speculate that the multisensory brain systems that re-map somatosensory signals onto external reference frames are less developed in blind individuals and therefore do not allow efficient fusion of tactile and proprioceptive signals from the two upper limbs into a single illusory experience of self-touch as in sighted individuals.

  9. Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Simão, Cláudia; Seibt, Beate

    2015-01-01

    Communion among people is easily identifiable. Close friends or relatives frequently touch each other and this physical contact helps identifying the type of relationship they have. We tested whether a friendly touch and benefits elicit the emotion of gratitude given the close link between gratitude and communal relations. In Study 1, we induced a communal mindset and manipulated friendly touch (vs. non-touch) and benefit to female participants by a female confederate. We measured pre- and post-benefit gratitude, communal feelings, and liking toward the toucher, as well as general affect. In Study 2, we manipulated mindset, friendly touch and benefit, and measured the same variables in female pairs (confederate and participants). In both studies the results showed a main effect of touch on pre-benefit gratitude: participants who were touched by the confederate indicated more gratitude than those not touched. Moreover, benefit increased gratitude toward a confederate in the absence of touch, but not in the presence of touch. Additionally, perceiving the relationship as communal, and not merely liking the confederate, or a positive mood mediated the link between touch and gratitude. The results further support a causal model where touch increases communal feelings, which in turn increase gratitude at the end of the interaction, after having received a benefit from the interaction partner. These results support a broader definition of gratitude as an emotion embodied in communal relationship cues.

  10. Effect of touch screen button size and spacing on touch characteristics of users with and without disabilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sesto, Mary E; Irwin, Curtis B; Chen, Karen B; Chourasia, Amrish O; Wiegmann, Douglas A

    2012-06-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of button size and spacing on touch characteristics (forces, impulses, and dwell times) during a digit entry touch screen task. A secondary objective was to investigate the effect of disability on touch characteristics. Touch screens are common in public settings and workplaces. Although research has examined the effect of button size and spacing on performance, the effect on touch characteristics is unknown. A total of 52 participants (n = 23, fine motor control disability; n = 14, gross motor control disability; n = 15, no disability) completed a digit entry task. Button sizes varied from 10 mm to 30 mm, and button spacing was 1 mm or 3 mm. Touch characteristics were significantly affected by button size. The exerted peak forces increased 17% between the largest and the smallest buttons, whereas impulses decreased 28%. Compared with the fine motor and nondisabled groups, the gross motor group had greater impulses (98% and 167%, respectively) and dwell times (60% and 129%, respectively). Peak forces were similar for all groups. Button size but not spacing influenced touch characteristics during a digit entry task. The gross motor group had significantly greater dwell times and impulses than did the fine motor and nondisabled groups. Research on touch characteristics, in conjunction with that on user performance, can be used to guide human computer interface design strategies to improve accessibility of touch screen interfaces. Further research is needed to evaluate the effect of the exerted peak forces and impulses on user performance and fatigue.

  11. Quantifying touch-feel perception on automotive interiors by a multi-function tribological probe microscope

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Liu, X; Chan, M K; Hennessey, B; Ruebenach, T; Alay, G

    2005-01-01

    In this paper we will report the preliminary study of people's subjective feelings on stroking surfaces of different materials and the measured properties of these surfaces, in order to understand exactly what properties matter and to what extent the different factors weight the human perception. Ten specimens with materials ranging from natural wood, leather to engineered plastics and metal were selected for this study. These specimens were first tested by a group of untrained people for describing their subjective feel sensation in terms of smoothrough, soft-hard, slippery-grippy, warm-cold and overall judgement of like and dislike for the sample being touched. Then the same specimens were measured for their surface properties by various techniques. In particular, the multi-function measurement has been carried out on each of specimens by a novel tribological probe microscope (TPM). The TPM is capable of measuring four functions in a single scan to provide area mappings of topography, friction, Young's modulus and hardness. As the TPM mapping is based on a point-by-point scanning so values of the four measured functions are linked in space and in time, therefore cross correlation between functions can be established. Although the TPM measured area is small compared to fingertip, the results show that the perception is influenced by nano- and microscale structure of surfaces

  12. TouchTokens: Guiding Touch Patterns with Passive Tokens

    OpenAIRE

    Morales Gonzalez , Rafael; Appert , Caroline; Bailly , Gilles; Pietriga , Emmanuel

    2016-01-01

    International audience; TouchTokens make it possible to easily build interfaces that combine tangible and gestural input using passive tokens and a regular multi-touch surface. The tokens constrain users' grasp, and thus, the relative spatial configuration of fingers on the surface, theoretically making it possible to design algorithms that can recognize the resulting touch patterns. We performed a formative user study to collect and analyze touch patterns with tokens of varying shape and siz...

  13. Friendly touch increases gratitude by inducing communal feelings

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Cláudia eSimão

    2015-06-01

    Full Text Available Communion among people is easily identifiable. Close friends or relatives frequently touch each other and this physical contact helps identifying the type of relationship they have. We tested whether a friendly touch and benefits elicit the emotion of gratitude given the close link between gratitude and communal relations. In Study 1 we induced a communal mindset and manipulated friendly touch (vs. non-touch and benefit to female participants by a female confederate. We measured pre- and post-benefit gratitude, communal feelings, and liking towards the toucher, as well as general affect. In Study 2 we manipulated mindset, friendly touch and benefit, and measured the same variables in female pairs (confederate and participants. In both studies the results showed a main effect of touch on pre-benefit gratitude: participants who were touched by the confederate indicated more gratitude than those not touched. Moreover, benefit increased gratitude towards a confederate in the absence of touch, but not in the presence of touch. Additionally, perceiving the relationship as communal, and not merely liking the confederate, or a positive mood mediated the link between touch and gratitude. The results further support a causal model where touch increases communal feelings, which in turn increase gratitude at the end of the interaction, after having received a benefit from the interaction partner. These results support a broader definition of gratitude as an emotion embodied in communal relationship cues.

  14. Touch Challenge ‘15: Recognizing Social Touch Gestures

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Cang, Xi Laura; Poel, Mannes; MacLean, Karon E.

    2015-01-01

    Advances in the field of touch recognition could open up applications for touch-based interaction in areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). We extended this challenge to the research community working on multimodal interaction with the goal of sparking interest in the touch modality and to

  15. [Therapeutic touch and anorexia nervosa].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Satori, Nadine

    2016-01-01

    An innovative practice, therapeutic touch has been used for around ten years in the treatment of eating disorders. Delivered by nurse clinicians having received specific training, this approach is based on nursing diagnoses which identify the major symptoms of this pathology. The support is built around the body and its perceptions. Through the helping relationship, it mobilises the patient's resources to favour a relationship of trust, a letting-go, physical, psychological and emotional relaxation, and improves the therapeutic alliance. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier Masson SAS.

  16. The Virtual Midas Touch: Helping Behavior After a Mediated Social Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haans, A; Usselsteijn, W A

    2009-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply with a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas touch phenomenon would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., touching via an arm strap equipped with electromechanical actuators). Helping behavior was more frequently endorsed in the touch, compared to the no-touch condition, but this difference was not found to be statistically significant. However, a meta-analytical comparison with published research demonstrated that the strength of the virtual Midas touch is of the same magnitude as that of the Midas touch in unmediated situations. The present experiment, thus, provides empirical evidence that touch-like qualities can be attributed to electromechanical stimulation. This is important for the field of mediated social touch of which the design rationale is based on the assumption that mediated touch by means of tactile feedback technologies is processed in ways similar to real physical contact.

  17. Crossmodal influences on visual perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shams, Ladan; Kim, Robyn

    2010-09-01

    Vision is generally considered the dominant sensory modality; self-contained and independent of other senses. In this article, we will present recent results that contradict this view, and show that visual perception can be strongly altered by sound and touch, and such alterations can occur even at early stages of processing, as early as primary visual cortex. We will first review the behavioral evidence demonstrating modulation of visual perception by other modalities. As extreme examples of such modulations, we will describe two visual illusions induced by sound, and a visual illusion induced by touch. Next, we will discuss studies demonstrating modulation of activity in visual areas by stimulation of other modalities, and discuss possible pathways that could underpin such interactions. This will be followed by a discussion of how crossmodal interactions can affect visual learning and adaptation. We will review several studies showing crossmodal effects on visual learning. We will conclude with a discussion of computational principles governing these crossmodal interactions, and review several recent studies that demonstrate that these interactions are statistically optimal.

  18. Out of touch with reality? Social perception in first-episode schizophrenia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebisch, Sjoerd J H; Salone, Anatolia; Ferri, Francesca; De Berardis, Domenico; Romani, Gian Luca; Ferro, Filippo M; Gallese, Vittorio

    2013-04-01

    Social dysfunction has been recognized as an elementary feature of schizophrenia, but it remains a crucial issue whether social deficits in schizophrenia concern the inter-subjective domain or primarily have their roots in disturbances of self-experience. Social perception comprises vicarious processes grounding an experiential inter-relationship with others as well as self-regulation processes allowing to maintain a coherent sense of self. The present study investigated whether the functional neural basis underlying these processes is altered in first-episode schizophrenia (FES). Twenty-four FES patients and 22 healthy control participants underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging during a social perception task requiring them to watch videos depicting other individuals' inanimate and animate/social tactile stimulations, and a tactile localizer condition. Activation in ventral premotor cortex for observed bodily tactile stimulations was reduced in the FES group and negatively correlated with self-experience disturbances. Moreover, FES patients showed aberrant differential activation in posterior insula for first-person tactile experiences and observed affective tactile stimulations. These findings suggest that social perception in FES at a pre-reflective level is characterized by disturbances of self-experience, including impaired multisensory representations and self-other distinction. However, the results also show that social perception in FES involves more complex alterations of neural activation at multiple processing levels.

  19. Haptic perception

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kappers, A.M.L.; Bergmann Tiest, W.M.

    2013-01-01

    Fueled by novel applications, interest in haptic perception is growing. This paper provides an overview of the state of the art of a number of important aspects of haptic perception. By means of touch we can not only perceive quite different material properties, such as roughness, compliance,

  20. Exploring Landscape Engagement through a Participatory Touch Table Approach

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Conniff

    2017-10-01

    Full Text Available Governments and national bodies are increasingly concerned with promoting outdoor activity as a means to benefit general health and wellbeing. Techniques to encourage and popularize engagement with the outdoor environment should therefore be welcome. This paper explores the use of a touch table as a method to facilitate discussions about people’s engagement with rural and urban landscapes through recreational walking. We describe a study in north-east Scotland involving 22 participants who undertook walks of their choice using GPS smartphone applications to track their routes. Tracked routes were uploaded to a touch table and small group sessions explored spatial behavior in, and perceptions and knowledge of, local landscapes. Individual interviews 4–6 weeks later elicited reflections on the touch table session and personal engagement with the landscape. Two types of findings are reported: (i observations and recommendations relating to the use of a touch table in combination with GPS applications; and (ii knowledge exchange and insights afforded by group discussion and individual reflection. We conclude that our approach is a promising participatory method through which to investigate spatial behavior and promote recreational opportunities in the landscape.

  1. The effect of background music on episodic memory and autonomic responses: listening to emotionally touching music enhances facial memory capacity

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mado Proverbio, C.A. Alice; Lozano Nasi, Valentina; Alessandra Arcari, Laura; De Benedetto, Francesco; Guardamagna, Matteo; Gazzola, Martina; Zani, Alberto

    2015-01-01

    The aim of this study was to investigate how background auditory processing can affect other perceptual and cognitive processes as a function of stimulus content, style and emotional nature. Previous studies have offered contrasting evidence, and it has been recently shown that listening to music negatively affected concurrent mental processing in the elderly but not in young adults. To further investigate this matter, the effect of listening to music vs. listening to the sound of rain or silence was examined by administering an old/new face memory task (involving 448 unknown faces) to a group of 54 non-musician university students. Heart rate and diastolic and systolic blood pressure were measured during an explicit face study session that was followed by a memory test. The results indicated that more efficient and faster recall of faces occurred under conditions of silence or when participants were listening to emotionally touching music. Whereas auditory background (e.g., rain or joyful music) interfered with memory encoding, listening to emotionally touching music improved memory and significantly increased heart rate. It is hypothesized that touching music is able to modify the visual perception of faces by binding facial properties with auditory and emotionally charged information (music), which may therefore result in deeper memory encoding. PMID:26469712

  2. The effect of background music on episodic memory and autonomic responses: listening to emotionally touching music enhances facial memory capacity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Proverbio, Alice Mado; Mado Proverbio, C A Alice; Lozano Nasi, Valentina; Alessandra Arcari, Laura; De Benedetto, Francesco; Guardamagna, Matteo; Gazzola, Martina; Zani, Alberto

    2015-10-15

    The aim of this study was to investigate how background auditory processing can affect other perceptual and cognitive processes as a function of stimulus content, style and emotional nature. Previous studies have offered contrasting evidence, and it has been recently shown that listening to music negatively affected concurrent mental processing in the elderly but not in young adults. To further investigate this matter, the effect of listening to music vs. listening to the sound of rain or silence was examined by administering an old/new face memory task (involving 448 unknown faces) to a group of 54 non-musician university students. Heart rate and diastolic and systolic blood pressure were measured during an explicit face study session that was followed by a memory test. The results indicated that more efficient and faster recall of faces occurred under conditions of silence or when participants were listening to emotionally touching music. Whereas auditory background (e.g., rain or joyful music) interfered with memory encoding, listening to emotionally touching music improved memory and significantly increased heart rate. It is hypothesized that touching music is able to modify the visual perception of faces by binding facial properties with auditory and emotionally charged information (music), which may therefore result in deeper memory encoding.

  3. Social Touch Technology: A Survey of Haptic Technology for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2017-01-01

    This survey provides an overview of work on haptic technology for social touch. Social touch has been studied extensively in psychology and neuroscience. With the development of new technologies, it is now possible to engage in social touch at a distance or engage in social touch with artificial

  4. Seeing and Feeling for Self and Other: Proprioceptive Spatial Location Determines Multisensory Enhancement of Touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cardini, Flavia; Haggard, Patrick; Ladavas, Elisabetta

    2013-01-01

    We have investigated the relation between visuo-tactile interactions and the self-other distinction. In the Visual Enhancement of Touch (VET) effect, non-informative vision of one's own hand improves tactile spatial perception. Previous studies suggested that looking at "another"person's hand could also enhance tactile perception, but did not…

  5. Self Touch to Touch Others: Designing the Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, G.; Darriba Frederiks, A.; van Dijk, B.; Kröse, B.; Heylen, D.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we present the concept and initial design stages of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch). The TaSST consists of a soft pressure-sensitive input layer, and an output layer containing vibration motors. A touch to ones own sleeve is felt as a vibration on the sleeve of another

  6. Self touch to touch others : designing the tactile sleeve for social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; Heylen, Dirk; Van Dijk, Betsy; Kröse, Ben

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we present the concept and initial design stages of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch). The TaSST consists of a soft pressure-sensitive input layer, and an output layer containing vibration motors. A touch to ones own sleeve is felt as a vibration on the sleeve of another

  7. Instant Sencha Touch

    CERN Document Server

    Dave, Hiren J

    2013-01-01

    Get to grips with a new technology, understand what it is and what it can do for you, and then get to work with the most important features and tasks. This book is a practical, step by step tutorial that will get you to use Sencha Touch core components quickly and efficiently.Instant Sencha Touch is for hobbyists who want to explore the capabilities of Sencha Touch. No prior knowledge of Sencha Touch is assumed. This book is simultaneously helpful for developers as well who want to quickly learn about Sencha Touch Framework. The book is structured in such a way that amateurs as well as experts

  8. Large-Area Cross-Aligned Silver Nanowire Electrodes for Flexible, Transparent, and Force-Sensitive Mechanochromic Touch Screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Seungse; Kang, Saewon; Pandya, Ashish; Shanker, Ravi; Khan, Ziyauddin; Lee, Youngsu; Park, Jonghwa; Craig, Stephen L; Ko, Hyunhyub

    2017-04-25

    Silver nanowire (AgNW) networks are considered to be promising structures for use as flexible transparent electrodes for various optoelectronic devices. One important application of AgNW transparent electrodes is the flexible touch screens. However, the performances of flexible touch screens are still limited by the large surface roughness and low electrical to optical conductivity ratio of random network AgNW electrodes. In addition, although the perception of writing force on the touch screen enables a variety of different functions, the current technology still relies on the complicated capacitive force touch sensors. This paper demonstrates a simple and high-throughput bar-coating assembly technique for the fabrication of large-area (>20 × 20 cm 2 ), highly cross-aligned AgNW networks for transparent electrodes with the sheet resistance of 21.0 Ω sq -1 at 95.0% of optical transmittance, which compares favorably with that of random AgNW networks (sheet resistance of 21.0 Ω sq -1 at 90.4% of optical transmittance). As a proof of concept demonstration, we fabricate flexible, transparent, and force-sensitive touch screens using cross-aligned AgNW electrodes integrated with mechanochromic spiropyran-polydimethylsiloxane composite film. Our force-sensitive touch screens enable the precise monitoring of dynamic writings, tracing and drawing of underneath pictures, and perception of handwriting patterns with locally different writing forces. The suggested technique provides a robust and powerful platform for the controllable assembly of nanowires beyond the scale of conventional fabrication techniques, which can find diverse applications in multifunctional flexible electronic and optoelectronic devices.

  9. Rubber hand illusion affects joint angle perception.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Martin V Butz

    Full Text Available The Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI is a well-established experimental paradigm. It has been shown that the RHI can affect hand location estimates, arm and hand motion towards goals, the subjective visual appearance of the own hand, and the feeling of body ownership. Several studies also indicate that the peri-hand space is partially remapped around the rubber hand. Nonetheless, the question remains if and to what extent the RHI can affect the perception of other body parts. In this study we ask if the RHI can alter the perception of the elbow joint. Participants had to adjust an angular representation on a screen according to their proprioceptive perception of their own elbow joint angle. The results show that the RHI does indeed alter the elbow joint estimation, increasing the agreement with the position and orientation of the artificial hand. Thus, the results show that the brain does not only adjust the perception of the hand in body-relative space, but it also modifies the perception of other body parts. In conclusion, we propose that the brain continuously strives to maintain a consistent internal body image and that this image can be influenced by the available sensory information sources, which are mediated and mapped onto each other by means of a postural, kinematic body model.

  10. Children's Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation Perspective.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheehan, Kelly J; Uttal, David H

    2016-01-01

    Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium - that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog) while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog). Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children's learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children's ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children's developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children's ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children's cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium.

  11. A TOUCH-SENSITIVE DEVICE

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    2009-01-01

    The present invention relates to an optical touch-sensitive device and a method of determining a position and determining a position change of an object contacting an optical touch sensitive device. In particular, the present invention relates to an optical touch pad and a method of determining...... a position and determining a position change of an object contacting an optical touch pad. A touch-sensitive device, according to the present invention may comprise a light source, a touch- sensitive waveguide, a detector array, and a first light redirecting member, wherein at least a part of the light...... propagating towards a specific point of the detector array is prevented from being incident upon the specific point of the detector array when an object contacts a touch-sensitive surface of the touch-sensitive waveguide at a corresponding specific contact point....

  12. Reward priming eliminates color-driven affect in perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hu, Kesong

    2018-01-03

    Brain and behavior evidence suggests that colors have distinct affective properties. Here, we investigated how reward influences color-driven affect in perception. In Experiment 1, we assessed competition between blue and red patches during a temporal-order judgment (TOJ) across a range of stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs). During the value reinforcement, reward was linked to either blue (version 1) or red (version 2) in the experiment. The same stimuli then served as test ones in the following unrewarded, unspeeded TOJ task. Our analysis showed that blue patches were consistently seen as occurring first, even when objectively appearing 2nd at short SOAs. This accelerated perception of blue over red was disrupted by prior primes related to reward (vs. neutral) but not perceptional (blue vs. red) priming. Experiment 2 replicated the findings of Experiment 1 while uncoupling action and stimulus values. These results are consistent with the blue-approach and red-avoidance motivation hypothesis and highlight an active nature of the association of reward priming and color processing. Together, the present study implies a link between reward and color affect and contributes to the understanding of how reward influences color affect in visual processing.

  13. Multisensory Perception of Affect

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Beatrice de Gelder

    2011-10-01

    Full Text Available Multisensory integration must stand out among the fields of research that have witnessed a most impressive explosion of interest this last decade. One of these new areas of multisensory research concerns emotion. Since our first exploration of this phenomenon (de Gelder et al., 1999 a number of studies have appeared and they have used a wide variety of behavioral, neuropsychological and neuroscientifc methods. The goal of this presentation is threefold. First, we review the research on audiovisual perception of emotional signals from the face and the voice followed by a report or more recent studies on integrating emotional information provided by the voice and whole body expressions. We will also include some recent work on multisensory music perception. In the next section we discuss some methodological and theoretical issues. Finally, we will discuss findings about abnormal affective audiovisual integration in schizophrenia and in autism.

  14. Affect, risk perception and future optimism after the tsunami disaster

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Daniel Vastfjall

    2008-01-01

    Full Text Available Environmental events such as natural disasters may influence the public's affective reactions and decisions. Shortly after the 2004 Tsunami disaster we assessed how affect elicited by thinking about this disaster influenced risk perceptions and future time perspective in Swedish undergraduates not directly affected by the disaster. An experimental manipulation was used to increase the salience of affect associated with the disaster. In Study 1 we found that participants reminded about the tsunami had a sense that their life was more finite and included fewer opportunities than participants in the control condition (not reminded about the tsunami. In Study 2 we found similar effects for risk perceptions. In addition, we showed that manipulations of ease-of-thought influenced the extent to which affect influenced these risk perceptions, with greater ease of thoughts being associated with greater perceived risks.

  15. The virtual midas touch : helping behavior after a mediated social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.

    2009-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply with a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas touch phenomenon would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., touching via an arm strap equipped with electromechanical actuators).

  16. Children's Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation perspective

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Kelly Jean Sheehan

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium – that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog. Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children’s learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children’s ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children’s developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children’s ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children’s cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium.

  17. Visual Experience Shapes the Neural Networks Remapping Touch into External Space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Crollen, Virginie; Lazzouni, Latifa; Rezk, Mohamed; Bellemare, Antoine; Lepore, Franco; Collignon, Olivier

    2017-10-18

    Localizing touch relies on the activation of skin-based and externally defined spatial frames of reference. Psychophysical studies have demonstrated that early visual deprivation prevents the automatic remapping of touch into external space. We used fMRI to characterize how visual experience impacts the brain circuits dedicated to the spatial processing of touch. Sighted and congenitally blind humans performed a tactile temporal order judgment (TOJ) task, either with the hands uncrossed or crossed over the body midline. Behavioral data confirmed that crossing the hands has a detrimental effect on TOJ judgments in sighted but not in early blind people. Crucially, the crossed hand posture elicited enhanced activity, when compared with the uncrossed posture, in a frontoparietal network in the sighted group only. Psychophysiological interaction analysis revealed, however, that the congenitally blind showed enhanced functional connectivity between parietal and frontal regions in the crossed versus uncrossed hand postures. Our results demonstrate that visual experience scaffolds the neural implementation of the location of touch in space. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT In daily life, we seamlessly localize touch in external space for action planning toward a stimulus making contact with the body. For efficient sensorimotor integration, the brain has therefore to compute the current position of our limbs in the external world. In the present study, we demonstrate that early visual deprivation alters the brain activity in a dorsal parietofrontal network typically supporting touch localization in the sighted. Our results therefore conclusively demonstrate the intrinsic role that developmental vision plays in scaffolding the neural implementation of touch perception. Copyright © 2017 the authors 0270-6474/17/3710097-07$15.00/0.

  18. GelTouch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Miruchna, Viktor; Walter, Robert; Lindlbauer, David

    2015-01-01

    We present GelTouch, a gel-based layer that can selectively transition between soft and stiff to provide tactile multi-touch feedback. It is flexible, transparent when not activated, and contains no mechanical, electromagnetic, or hydraulic components, resulting in a compact form factor (a 2mm thin...... touchscreen layer for our prototype). The activated areas can be morphed freely and continuously, without being limited to fixed, predefined shapes. GelTouch consists of a poly(N-isopropylacrylamide) gel layer which alters its viscoelasticity when activated by applying heat (>32 C). We present three different...

  19. Automatic recognition of touch gestures in the corpus of social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Poel, Mannes; Poppe, Ronald Walter; Heylen, Dirk K.J.

    For an artifact such as a robot or a virtual agent to respond appropriately to human social touch behavior, it should be able to automatically detect and recognize touch. This paper describes the data collection of CoST: Corpus of Social Touch, a data set containing 7805 captures of 14 different

  20. Virtual Touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Stenslie, Ståle

    The central focus of this thesis is the use and experience of touch in artistic, multimodal and computer-based environments. The haptic experience of touch is an area that has only received limited research-based interest. Touch is too often seen as the effect, and not the cause of our everyday...... experiences. The study aims to provide an improved knowledge of how touch functions and how haptic storytelling can be used as an artistic medium. This thesis is divided into seven parts. The introductory chapter presents the structure of the study and the history leading up the formulation of research...... questions and hypotheses. Further it contextualizes the research in a broader context. The second chapter presents my bricolage of methodological choices and puts them in relation to art, technology and aesthetics. Here the thesis is presented as practice-based research focused on my artistic experiment...

  1. Sencha Touch cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Kumar, Ajit

    2013-01-01

    The book is written in a Cookbook style, presenting examples in the style of recipes, allowing you to go directly to your topic of interest or follow topics throughout a chapter to gain in-depth knowledge.Sencha Touch Cookbook (2nd edition) is great for developers who are new to Sencha Touch and who are looking to get a good hold on what the Sencha Touch framework offers and how to use it to build a great touch-based mobile application running on different platforms. It is assumed that you will have some experience in HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript. To truly appreciate the framework capability

  2. Towards social touch intelligence: developing a robust system for automatic touch recognition

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine

    2014-01-01

    Touch behavior is of great importance during social interaction. Automatic recognition of social touch is necessary to transfer the touch modality from interpersonal interaction to other areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI). This paper describes a PhD research program on the automatic

  3. A virtual Midas touch? : touch, compliance, and confederate bias in mediated communication

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; Bruijn, de R.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.

    2014-01-01

    A brief touch to the shoulder or upper arm increases people’s helping behavior and willingness to comply with requests. In this manuscript, we investigate whether this well-known Midas touch effect is also operative in mediated interactions where the touch act is replaced by electromechanical

  4. Emotion perception, but not affect perception, is impaired with semantic memory loss.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lindquist, Kristen A; Gendron, Maria; Barrett, Lisa Feldman; Dickerson, Bradford C

    2014-04-01

    For decades, psychologists and neuroscientists have hypothesized that the ability to perceive emotions on others' faces is inborn, prelinguistic, and universal. Concept knowledge about emotion has been assumed to be epiphenomenal to emotion perception. In this article, we report findings from 3 patients with semantic dementia that cannot be explained by this "basic emotion" view. These patients, who have substantial deficits in semantic processing abilities, spontaneously perceived pleasant and unpleasant expressions on faces, but not discrete emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, or sadness, even in a task that did not require the use of emotion words. Our findings support the hypothesis that discrete emotion concept knowledge helps transform perceptions of affect (positively or negatively valenced facial expressions) into perceptions of discrete emotions such as anger, disgust, fear, and sadness. These findings have important consequences for understanding the processes supporting emotion perception.

  5. Does affective touch influence the virtual reality full body illusion?

    OpenAIRE

    de Jong, Jutta R; Keizer, Anouk; Engel, Manja M; Dijkerman, H Chris

    2017-01-01

    The sense of how we experience our physical body as our own represents a fundamental component of human self-awareness. Body ownership can be studied with bodily illusions which are generated by inducing a visuo-tactile conflict where individuals experience illusionary ownership over a fake body or body part, such as a rubber hand. Previous studies showed that different types of touch modulate the strength of experienced ownership over a rubber hand. Specifically, participants experienced mor...

  6. Effects of Positive Affect on Risk Perceptions in Adolescence and Young Adulthood

    Science.gov (United States)

    Haase, Claudia M.; Silbereisen, Rainer K.

    2011-01-01

    Affective influences may play a key role in adolescent risk taking, but have rarely been studied. Using an audiovisual method of affect induction, two experimental studies examined the effect of positive affect on risk perceptions in adolescence and young adulthood. Outcomes were risk perceptions regarding drinking alcohol, smoking a cigarette,…

  7. A flexible tactile-feedback touch screen using transparent ferroelectric polymer film vibrators

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ju, Woo-Eon; Moon, Yong-Ju; Park, Cheon-Ho; Choi, Seung Tae

    2014-01-01

    To provide tactile feedback on flexible touch screens, transparent relaxor ferroelectric polymer film vibrators were designed and fabricated in this study. The film vibrator can be integrated underneath a transparent cover film or glass, and can also produce acoustic waves that cause a tactile sensation on human fingertips. Poly(vinylidene fluoride-trifluoroethylene-chlorotrifluoroethylene) [P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE)] polymer was used as the relaxor ferroelectric polymer because it produces a large strain under applied electric fields, shows a fast response, and has excellent optical transparency. The natural frequency of this tactile-feedback touch screen was designed to be around 200–240 Hz, at which the haptic perception of human fingertips is the most sensitive; therefore, the resonance of the touch screen at its natural frequency provides maximum haptic sensation. A multilayered relaxor ferroelectric polymer film vibrator was also demonstrated to provide the same vibration power at reduced voltage. The flexible P(VDF-TrFE-CTFE) film vibrators developed in this study are expected to provide tactile sensation not only in large-area flat panel displays, but also in flexible displays and touch screens. (papers)

  8. Children’s Learning from Touch Screens: A Dual Representation Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sheehan, Kelly J.; Uttal, David H.

    2016-01-01

    Parents and educators often expect that children will learn from touch screen devices, such as during joint e-book reading. Therefore an essential question is whether young children understand that the touch screen can be a symbolic medium – that entities represented on the touch screen can refer to entities in the real world. Research on symbolic development suggests that symbolic understanding requires that children develop dual representational abilities, meaning children need to appreciate that a symbol is an object in itself (i.e., picture of a dog) while also being a representation of something else (i.e., the real dog). Drawing on classic research on symbols and new research on children’s learning from touch screens, we offer the perspective that children’s ability to learn from the touch screen as a symbolic medium depends on the effect of interactivity on children’s developing dual representational abilities. Although previous research on dual representation suggests the interactive nature of the touch screen might make it difficult for young children to use as a symbolic medium, the unique interactive affordances may help alleviate this difficulty. More research needs to investigate how the interactivity of the touch screen affects children’s ability to connect the symbols on the screen to the real world. Given the interactive nature of the touch screen, researchers and educators should consider both the affordances of the touch screen as well as young children’s cognitive abilities when assessing whether young children can learn from it as a symbolic medium. PMID:27570516

  9. Touch and You’re Trapp(cked: Quantifying the Uniqueness of Touch Gestures for Tracking

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masood Rahat

    2018-04-01

    Full Text Available We argue that touch-based gestures on touch-screen devices enable the threat of a form of persistent and ubiquitous tracking which we call touch-based tracking. Touch-based tracking goes beyond the tracking of virtual identities and has the potential for cross-device tracking as well as identifying multiple users using the same device. We demonstrate the likelihood of touch-based tracking by focusing on touch gestures widely used to interact with touch devices such as swipes and taps.. Our objective is to quantify and measure the information carried by touch-based gestures which may lead to tracking users. For this purpose, we develop an information theoretic method that measures the amount of information about users leaked by gestures when modelled as feature vectors. Our methodology allows us to evaluate the information leaked by individual features of gestures, samples of gestures, as well as samples of combinations of gestures. Through our purpose-built app, called TouchTrack, we gather gesture samples from 89 users, and demonstrate that touch gestures contain sufficient information to uniquely identify and track users. Our results show that writing samples (on a touch pad can reveal 73.7% of information (when measured in bits, and left swipes can reveal up to 68.6% of information. Combining different combinations of gestures results in higher uniqueness, with the combination of keystrokes, swipes and writing revealing up to 98.5% of information about users. We further show that, through our methodology, we can correctly re-identify returning users with a success rate of more than 90%.

  10. The MAGIC Touch: Combining MAGIC-Pointing with a Touch-Sensitive Mouse

    Science.gov (United States)

    Drewes, Heiko; Schmidt, Albrecht

    In this paper, we show how to use the combination of eye-gaze and a touch-sensitive mouse to ease pointing tasks in graphical user interfaces. A touch of the mouse positions the mouse pointer at the current gaze position of the user. Thus, the pointer is always at the position where the user expects it on the screen. This approach changes the user experience in tasks that include frequent switching between keyboard and mouse input (e.g. working with spreadsheets). In a user study, we compared the touch-sensitive mouse with a traditional mouse and observed speed improvements for pointing tasks on complex backgrounds. For pointing task on plain backgrounds, performances with both devices were similar, but users perceived the gaze-sensitive interaction of the touch-sensitive mouse as being faster and more convenient. Our results show that using a touch-sensitive mouse that positions the pointer on the user’s gaze position reduces the need for mouse movements in pointing tasks enormously.

  11. Affective and motivational influences in person perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kuzmanovic, Bojana; Jefferson, Anneli; Bente, Gary; Vogeley, Kai

    2013-01-01

    Interpersonal impression formation is highly consequential for social interactions in private and public domains. These perceptions of others rely on different sources of information and processing mechanisms, all of which have been investigated in independent research fields. In social psychology, inferences about states and traits of others as well as activations of semantic categories and corresponding stereotypes have attracted great interest. On the other hand, research on emotion and reward demonstrated affective and motivational influences of social cues on the observer, which in turn modulate attention, categorization, evaluation, and decision processes. While inferential and categorical social processes have been shown to recruit a network of cortical brain regions associated with mentalizing and evaluation, the affective influence of social cues has been linked to subcortical areas that play a central role in detection of salient sensory input and reward processing. In order to extend existing integrative approaches to person perception, both the inferential-categorical processing of information about others, and affective and motivational influences of this information on the beholder should be taken into account.

  12. Affective and motivational influences in person perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bojana eKuzmanovic

    2013-06-01

    Full Text Available Interpersonal impression formation is highly consequential for social interactions in private and public domains. These perceptions of others rely on different sources of information and processing mechanisms, all of which have been investigated in independent research fields. In social psychology, inferences about states and traits of others as well as activations of semantic categories and corresponding stereotypes have attracted great interest. On the other hand, research on emotion and reward demonstrated affective and motivational influences of social cues on the observer, which in turn modulate attention, categorization, evaluation and decision processes. While inferential and categorical social processes have been shown to recruit a network of cortical brain regions associated with mentalizing and evaluation, the affective influence of social cues has been linked to subcortical areas that play a central role in detection of salient sensory input and reward processing. In order to extend existing integrative approaches to person perception, both the inferential-categorical processing of information about others, and affective and motivational influences of this information on the beholder should be taken into account.

  13. Measurement, modeling and perception of painted surfaces: A Multi-scale Analysis of the Touch-up Problem

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kalghatgi, Suparna Kishore

    Real-world surfaces typically have geometric features at a range of spatial scales. At the microscale, opaque surfaces are often characterized by bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDF), which describes how a surface scatters incident light. At the mesoscale, surfaces often exhibit visible texture -- stochastic or patterned arrangements of geometric features that provide visual information about surface properties such as roughness, smoothness, softness, etc. These textures also affect how light is scattered by the surface, but the effects are at a different spatial scale than those captured by the BRDF. Through this research, we investigate how microscale and mesoscale surface properties interact to contribute to overall surface appearance. This behavior is also the cause of the well-known "touch-up problem" in the paint industry, where two regions coated with exactly the same paint, look different in color, gloss and/or texture because of differences in application methods. At first, samples were created by applying latex paint to standard wallboard surfaces. Two application methods- spraying and rolling were used. The BRDF and texture properties of the samples were measured, which revealed differences at both the microscale and mesoscale. This data was then used as input for a physically-based image synthesis algorithm, to generate realistic images of the surfaces under different viewing conditions. In order to understand the factors that govern touch-up visibility, psychophysical tests were conducted using calibrated, digital photographs of the samples as stimuli. Images were presented in pairs and a two alternative forced choice design was used for the experiments. These judgments were then used as data for a Thurstonian scaling analysis to produce psychophysical scales of visibility, which helped determine the effect of paint formulation, application methods, and viewing and illumination conditions on the touch-up problem. The results can be

  14. Touch-screen computerized education for patients with brain injuries.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Patyk, M; Gaynor, S; Kelly, J; Ott, V

    1998-01-01

    The use of computer technology for patient education has increased in recent years. This article describes a study that measures the attitudes and perceptions of healthcare professionals and laypeople regarding the effectiveness of a multimedia computer, the Brain Injury Resource Center (BIRC), as an educational tool. The study focused on three major themes: (a) usefulness of the information presented, (b) effectiveness of the multimedia touch-screen computer methodology, and (c) the appropriate time for making this resource available. This prospective study, conducted in an acute care medical center, obtained healthcare professionals' evaluations using a written survey and responses from patients with brain injury and their families during interviews. The findings have yielded excellent ratings as to the ease of understanding and usefulness of the BIRC. By using sight, sound, and touch, such a multimedia learning center has the potential to simplify patient and family education.

  15. Touching the Void - Introducing CoST: Corpus of Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel M.; Poppe, Ronald; Poel, Mannes; Heylen, Dirk K. J.

    2014-01-01

    Touch behavior is of great importance during social interaction. To transfer the tactile modality from interpersonal interaction to other areas such as Human-Robot Interaction (HRI) and remote communication automatic recognition of social touch is necessary. This paper introduces CoST: Corpus of

  16. Perception of Affective Body Movements in HRI Across Age Groups

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Rehm, Matthias; Krogsager, Anders; Segato, Nicolaj

    2016-01-01

    robots and the signals they produce. In this paper we focus on affective connotations of body movements and investigate how the perception of body movements of robots is related to age. Inspired by a study from Japan, we introduce culture as a variable in the experiment and discuss the difficulties...... of cross-cultural comparisons. The results show that there are certain age-related differences in the perception of affective body movements, but not as strong as in the original study. A follow up experiment puts the affective body movements into context and shows that recognition rates deteriorate...

  17. A Touch Sensing Technique Using the Effects of Extremely Low Frequency Fields on the Human Body.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Elfekey, Hatem; Bastawrous, Hany Ayad; Okamoto, Shogo

    2016-12-02

    Touch sensing is a fundamental approach in human-to-machine interfaces, and is currently under widespread use. Many current applications use active touch sensing technologies. Passive touch sensing technologies are, however, more adequate to implement low power or energy harvesting touch sensing interfaces. This paper presents a passive touch sensing technique based on the fact that the human body is affected by the surrounding extremely low frequency (ELF) electromagnetic fields, such as those of AC power lines. These external ELF fields induce electric potentials on the human body-because human tissues exhibit some conductivity at these frequencies-resulting in what is called AC hum. We therefore propose a passive touch sensing system that detects this hum noise when a human touch occurs, thus distinguishing between touch and non-touch events. The effectiveness of the proposed technique is validated by designing and implementing a flexible touch sensing keyboard.

  18. Learning from vision-to-touch is different than from touch-to-vision.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dagmar A Wismeijer

    2012-11-01

    Full Text Available We studied whether vision can teach touch to the same extent as touch seems to teach vision. In a 2 x 2 between-participants learning study, we artificially correlated visual gloss cues with haptic compliance cues. In two "natural" tasks, we tested whether visual gloss estimations have an influence on haptic estimations of softness and vice versa. In two "new" tasks, in which participants were either asked to haptically judge glossiness or to visually judge softness, we investigated how perceptual estimates transfer from one sense to the other. Our results showed that vision does not teach touch as efficient as touch seems to teach vision.

  19. Auditory feedback affects perception of effort when exercising with a Pulley machine

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bordegoni, Monica; Ferrise, Francesco; Grani, Francesco

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we describe an experiment that investigates the role of auditory feedback in affecting the perception of effort when using a physical pulley machine. Specifically, we investigated whether variations in the amplitude and frequency content of the pulley sound affect perception of effo...

  20. An Ergonomic Study on Influence of Touch-screen Phone Size on Single-hand Operation Performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhu Rui

    2016-01-01

    Full Text Available Touch-screen smart phones have gradually occupied the market of traditional Qwerty Phones and become the mainstream products of mobile phone industry. However, few ergonomics research has been conducted on the touch screens of smart phones, while it has led to tendosynovitis among users owing to the overuse of thumbs. Sizes of smart phones in market range from 3.0 to 7.0 inches. What’s more, 4.0 inches and above are the common size of current touch screens. Also, considering the users’ habits, one-hand operation is preferred when the other hand is occupied. This paper has collected hand parameters of 80 subjects and has adopted an experiment which includes the performance testing and surveys of subjective evaluation by means of usability evaluation. After analysing correlation between touch-screen sizes and operation performances, the result indicates that under one-hand operation, the size of touch screen affects the operation performance significantly. However, it’s hard to implement one-hand operation if the touch-screen size is over 5.7 inches. Additionally, the thickness of smart phones affects the degree of comfort remarkably.

  1. Reading the mind in the touch: Neurophysiological specificity in the communication of emotions by touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirsch, Louise P; Krahé, Charlotte; Blom, Nadia; Crucianelli, Laura; Moro, Valentina; Jenkinson, Paul M; Fotopoulou, Aikaterini

    2017-05-29

    Touch is central to interpersonal interactions. Touch conveys specific emotions about the touch provider, but it is not clear whether this is a purely socially learned function or whether it has neurophysiological specificity. In two experiments with healthy participants (N = 76 and 61) and one neuropsychological single case study, we investigated whether a type of touch characterised by peripheral and central neurophysiological specificity, namely the C tactile (CT) system, can communicate specific emotions and mental states. We examined the specificity of emotions elicited by touch delivered at CT-optimal (3cm/s) and CT-suboptimal (18cm/s) velocities (Experiment 1) at different body sites which contain (forearm) vs. do not contain (palm of the hand) CT fibres (Experiment 2). Blindfolded participants were touched without any contextual cues, and were asked to identify the touch provider's emotion and intention. Overall, CT-optimal touch (slow, gentle touch on the forearm) was significantly more likely than other types of touch to convey arousal, lust or desire. Affiliative emotions such as love and related intentions such as social support were instead reliably elicited by gentle touch, irrespective of CT-optimality, suggesting that other top-down factors contribute to these aspects of tactile social communication. To explore the neural basis of this communication, we also tested this paradigm in a stroke patient with right perisylvian damage, including the posterior insular cortex, which is considered as the primary cortical target of CT afferents, but excluding temporal cortex involvement that has been linked to more affiliative aspects of CT-optimal touch. His performance suggested an impairment in 'reading' emotions based on CT-optimal touch. Taken together, our results suggest that the CT system can add specificity to emotional and social communication, particularly with regards to feelings of desire and arousal. On the basis of these findings, we speculate

  2. Therapeutic touch affects DNA synthesis and mineralization of human osteoblasts in culture.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jhaveri, Ankur; Walsh, Stephen J; Wang, Yatzen; McCarthy, MaryBeth; Gronowicz, Gloria

    2008-11-01

    Complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques are commonly used in hospitals and private medical facilities; however, the effectiveness of many of these practices has not been thoroughly studied in a scientific manner. Developed by Dr. Dolores Krieger and Dora Kunz, Therapeutic Touch is one of these CAM practices and is a highly disciplined five-step process by which a practitioner can generate energy through their hands to promote healing. There are numerous clinical studies on the effects of TT but few in vitro studies. Our purpose was to determine if Therapeutic Touch had any effect on osteoblast proliferation, differentiation, and mineralization in vitro. TT was performed twice a week for 10 min each on human osteoblasts (HOBs) and on an osteosarcoma-derived cell line, SaOs-2. No significant differences were found in DNA synthesis, assayed by [(3)H]-thymidine incorporation at 1 or 2 weeks for SaOs-2 or 1 week for HOBs. However, after four TT treatments in 2 weeks, TT significantly (p = 0.03) increased HOB DNA synthesis compared to controls. Immunocytochemistry for Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) confirmed these data. At 2 weeks in differentiation medium, TT significantly increased mineralization in HOBs (p = 0.016) and decreased mineralization in SaOs-2 (p = 0.0007), compared to controls. Additionally, Northern blot analysis indicated a TT-induced increase in mRNA expression for Type I collagen, bone sialoprotein, and alkaline phosphatase in HOBs and a decrease of these bone markers in SaOs-2 cells. In conclusion, Therapeutic Touch appears to increase human osteoblast DNA synthesis, differentiation and mineralization, and decrease differentiation and mineralization in a human osteosarcoma-derived cell line. (c) 2008 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  3. Voluntary self-touch increases body ownership

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Masayuki eHara

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available Experimental manipulations of body ownership have indicated that multisensory integration is central to forming bodily self-representation. Voluntary self-touch is a unique multisensory situation involving corresponding motor, tactile and proprioceptive signals. Yet, even though self-touch is frequent in everyday life, its contribution to the formation of body ownership is not well understood. Here we investigated the role of voluntary self-touch in body ownership using a novel adaptation of the rubber hand illusion (RHI, in which a robotic system and virtual reality allowed participants self-touch of real and virtual hands. In the first experiment, active and passive self-touch were applied in the absence of visual feedback. In the second experiment, we tested the role of visual feedback in this bodily illusion. Finally, in the third experiment, we compared active and passive self-touch to the classical RHI in which the touch is administered by the experimenter. We hypothesized that active self-touch would increase ownership over the virtual hand through the addition of motor signals strengthening the bodily illusion. The results indicated that active self-touch elicited stronger illusory ownership compared to passive self-touch and sensory only stimulation, and indicate an important role of active self-touch in the formation of bodily self.

  4. Fish farmers' perceptions of constraints affecting aquaculture ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The study focused on fish farmers' perceptions of constraints affecting aquaculture development in Akwa-Ibom State of Nigeria. Random sampling procedure was used to select 120 respondents from whom primary data was collected. Data analysis was with the aid of descriptive statistics. Results show that fish farming ...

  5. Differentiation of Competence and Affect Self-Perceptions in Elementary School Students: Extending Empirical Evidence

    Science.gov (United States)

    Arens, A. Katrin; Hasselhorn, Marcus

    2015-01-01

    This study aimed to address two underexplored research questions regarding support for the separation between competence and affect self-perceptions due to differential relations to outcome criteria. First, it is tested whether higher relations between affect self-perceptions and effort than between competence self-perceptions and effort can also…

  6. Please Touch the Children: Appropriate Touch in the Primary Classroom

    Science.gov (United States)

    Owen, Pamela M.; Gillentine, Jonathan

    2011-01-01

    This study proposes to shift the current theoretical framework in which teachers practise a guarded approach regarding the touching of children in early childhood settings, towards a practice of acceptance. A brief historical context of touching is presented and supplemented with a survey of 63 currently practising K-3rd grade teachers. The survey…

  7. What you see is what you feel : on the simulation of touch in graphical user interfaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Mensvoort, van K.M.

    2009-01-01

    This study introduces a novel method of simulating touch with merely visual means. Interactive animations are used to create an optical illusion that evokes haptic percepts like stickiness, stiffness and mass, within a standard graphical user interface. The technique, called optically simulated

  8. touché is required for touch evoked generator potentials within vertebrate sensory neurons

    Science.gov (United States)

    Low, Sean E.; Ryan, Joel; Sprague, Shawn M.; Hirata, Hiromi; Cui, Wilson W.; Zhou, Weibin; Hume, Richard I.; Kuwada, John Y.; Saint-Amant, Louis

    2010-01-01

    The process by which light-touch in vertebrates is transformed into an electrical response in cutaneous mechanosensitive neurons is a largely unresolved question. To address this question we undertook a forward genetic screen in zebrafish (Danio rerio) to identify mutants exhibiting abnormal touch-evoked behaviors, despite the presence of sensory neurons and peripheral neurites. One family, subsequently named touché, was found to harbor a recessive mutation which produced offspring that were unresponsive to light-touch, but responded to a variety of other sensory stimuli. The optogenetic activation of motor behaviors by touché mutant sensory neurons expressing ChannelRhodopsin-2 suggested that the synaptic output of sensory neurons was intact, consistent with a defect in sensory neuron activation. To explore sensory neuron activation we developed an in vivo preparation permitting the precise placement of a combined electrical and tactile stimulating probe upon eGFP positive peripheral neurites. In wild type larva electrical and tactile stimulation of peripheral neurites produced action potentials detectable within the cell body. In a subset of these sensory neurons an underlying generator potential could be observed in response to subthreshold tactile stimuli. A closer examination revealed that the amplitude of the generator potential was proportional to the stimulus amplitude. When assayed touché mutant sensory neurons also responded to electrical stimulation of peripheral neurites similar to wild type larvae, however tactile stimulation of these neurites failed to uncover a subset of sensory neurons possessing generator potentials. These findings suggest that touché is required for generator potentials, and that generator potentials underlie responsiveness to light-touch in zebrafish. PMID:20631165

  9. Shape from touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kappers, A.M.L.; Bergmann Tiest, W.M.

    2014-01-01

    The shape of objects cannot only be recognized by vision, but also by touch. Vision has the advantage that shapes can be seen at a distance, but touch has the advantage that during exploration many additional object properties become available, such as temperature (Jones, 2009), texture (Bensmaia,

  10. Learning from vision-to-touch is different than learning from touch-to-vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wismeijer, Dagmar A; Gegenfurtner, Karl R; Drewing, Knut

    2012-01-01

    We studied whether vision can teach touch to the same extent as touch seems to teach vision. In a 2 × 2 between-participants learning study, we artificially correlated visual gloss cues with haptic compliance cues. In two "natural" tasks, we tested whether visual gloss estimations have an influence on haptic estimations of softness and vice versa. In two "novel" tasks, in which participants were either asked to haptically judge glossiness or to visually judge softness, we investigated how perceptual estimates transfer from one sense to the other. Our results showed that vision does not teach touch as efficient as touch seems to teach vision.

  11. Touched by the storyteller: the influence of remote touch in the context of storytelling

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Boensma, Robert W.M.; Huisman, Gijs; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.

    In this study we investigate the role of remote touch as an additional communication channel in the context of storytelling. We focus on studying the effect of remote touch and the timing of touch on perceived social presence and story recall. In our experiment people listened to an emotional story.

  12. The virtual Midas touch : helping behavior after a mediated social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.; Graus, M.P.; Salminen, J.A.

    2008-01-01

    A brief touch on the upper arm increases people's altruistic behavior and willingness to comply to a request. In this paper, we investigate whether this Midas Touch effect would also occur under mediated conditions (i.e., a text messaging system and an arm strap equipped with vibrotactile

  13. Mind the Gap: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Separation in Localization of Dual Touches on the Hand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Renata Sadibolova

    2018-02-01

    Full Text Available In this study, we aimed to relate the findings from two predominantly separate streams of literature, one reporting on the localization of single touches on the skin, and the other on the distance perception of dual touches. Participants were touched with two points, delivered either simultaneously or separated by a short delay to various locations on their left hand dorsum. They then indicated on a size-matched hand silhouette the perceived locations of tactile stimuli. We quantified the deviations between the actual stimulus grid and the corresponding perceptual map which was constructed from the perceived tactile locations, and we calculated the precision of tactile localization (i.e., the variability across localization attempts. The evidence showed that the dual touches, akin to single touch stimulations, were mislocalized distally and that their variable localization error was reduced near joints, particularly near knuckles. However, contrary to single-touch localization literature, we observed for the dual touches to be mislocalized towards the ulnar side of the hand, particularly when they were presented sequentially. Further, the touches presented in a sequential order were slightly “repelled” from each other and their perceived distance increased, while the simultaneous tactile pairs were localized closer to each other and their distance was compressed. Whereas the sequential touches may have been localized with reference to the body, the compression of tactile perceptual space for simultaneous touches was related in the previous literature to signal summation and inhibition and the low-level factors, including the innervation density and properties of receptive fields (RFs of somatosensory neurons.

  14. Mind the Gap: The Effects of Temporal and Spatial Separation in Localization of Dual Touches on the Hand.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sadibolova, Renata; Tamè, Luigi; Walsh, Eamonn; Longo, Matthew R

    2018-01-01

    In this study, we aimed to relate the findings from two predominantly separate streams of literature, one reporting on the localization of single touches on the skin, and the other on the distance perception of dual touches. Participants were touched with two points, delivered either simultaneously or separated by a short delay to various locations on their left hand dorsum. They then indicated on a size-matched hand silhouette the perceived locations of tactile stimuli. We quantified the deviations between the actual stimulus grid and the corresponding perceptual map which was constructed from the perceived tactile locations, and we calculated the precision of tactile localization (i.e., the variability across localization attempts). The evidence showed that the dual touches, akin to single touch stimulations, were mislocalized distally and that their variable localization error was reduced near joints, particularly near knuckles. However, contrary to single-touch localization literature, we observed for the dual touches to be mislocalized towards the ulnar side of the hand, particularly when they were presented sequentially. Further, the touches presented in a sequential order were slightly "repelled" from each other and their perceived distance increased, while the simultaneous tactile pairs were localized closer to each other and their distance was compressed. Whereas the sequential touches may have been localized with reference to the body, the compression of tactile perceptual space for simultaneous touches was related in the previous literature to signal summation and inhibition and the low-level factors, including the innervation density and properties of receptive fields (RFs) of somatosensory neurons.

  15. Influential sources affecting Bangkok adolescent body image perceptions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thianthai, Chulanee

    2006-01-01

    The study of body image-related problems in non-Western countries is still very limited. Thus, this study aims to identify the main influential sources and show how they affect the body image perceptions of Bangkok adolescents. The researcher recruited 400 Thai male and female adolescents in Bangkok, attending high school to freshmen level, ranging from 16-19 years, to participate in this study. Survey questionnaires were distributed to every student and follow-up interviews conducted with 40 students. The findings showed that there are eight main influential sources respectively ranked from the most influential to the least influential: magazines, television, peer group, familial, fashion trend, the opposite gender, self-realization and health knowledge. Similar to those studies conducted in Western countries, more than half of the total percentage was the influence of mass media and peer groups. Bangkok adolescents also internalized Western ideal beauty through these mass media channels. Alike studies conducted in the West, there was similarities in the process of how these influential sources affect Bangkok adolescent body image perception, with the exception of familial source. In conclusion, taking the approach of identifying the main influential sources and understanding how they affect adolescent body image perceptions can help prevent adolescents from having unhealthy views and taking risky measures toward their bodies. More studies conducted in non-Western countries are needed in order to build a cultural sensitive program, catered to the body image problems occurring in adolescents within that particular society.

  16. Affect perception across cultures: the role of cognitive mechanisms

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jan B Engelmann

    2013-03-01

    Full Text Available Despite consistently documented cultural differences in the perception of facial expressions of emotion, the role of culture in shaping cognitive mechanisms that are central to affect perception has received relatively little attention in past research. We review recent developments in cross-cultural psychology that provide particular insights into the modulatory role of culture on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion through two distinct routes: display rules and cognitive styles. Investigations of affect intensity perception have demonstrated that facial expressions with varying levels of intensity of positive affect are perceived and categorized differently across cultures. Recent findings indicating high levels of differentiation between intensity levels of facial expressions among American participants, as well as deviations from clear categorization of high and low intensity expressions in Japanese and Russian participants, suggest that display rules shape mental representations of emotions, such as intensity levels of emotion prototypes. Furthermore, a series of recent studies using eye tracking as a proxy for overt attention during face perception has identified culture-specific cognitive styles, such as the propensity to attend to very specific features of the face. Together, these results suggest a cascade of cultural influences on cognitive mechanisms involved in interpretations of facial expressions of emotion, whereby cultures impart specific behavioral practices that shape the way individuals process information from the environment. These cultural influences lead to differences in cognitive style, such as attentional biases and emotion prototypes, which partially account for the gradient of cultural agreements and disagreements obtained in past investigations.

  17. Kinaesthesia and Touching Reality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Roger Smith

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available This article outlines the philosophical and historical background to nineteenth-century belief that the touch sense, specifically including kinaesthesia, gives special, or uniquely deep, access to the world. The argument associates touch with life itself. Victorian writers also tied the sense of movement and touch to an understanding of causation and the world as a system of forces. The conclusion points to the possible significance of the arguments for the modernist arts, especially dance.

  18. 'Not a job for a man': factors in the use of touch by male nursing staff.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whiteside, James; Butcher, Dan

    While the numbers of male nursing staff are growing in both the UK and the USA, there remains a significant imbalance both in terms of the total number and the specialities in which male staff choose to work. Management, education and technology-dominated roles, characterised as 'high-tech, low-touch' specialities attract disproportionately larger numbers of male nursing staff. The aim of this narrative literature review was to explore and critically review the factors that influence the perception and use of touch by male nursing staff in contemporary healthcare settings. A comprehensive review of the literature was undertaken using significant online databases focusing on evidence from peer-reviewed journals published in English. Key influential factors arising from 11 selected studies included male nurses' definitions of touch; fear of touch misinterpretation; coping strategies employed; the assessment of certain groups of patients; gender-derived stressors; the emotional experiences of male staff; and the limited consideration of these issues in the pre-registration nursing curriculum. A range of factors regarding touch impact on the way male nurses use touch when caring for patients. A lack of research-based education in the preparation of male students leads to the development of various protective strategies. There is a need for the particular challenges facing male students and staff to be explicitly addressed within undergraduate and post-qualifying education and training programmes.

  19. Word selection affects perceptions of synthetic biology

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Tonidandel Scott

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available Abstract Members of the synthetic biology community have discussed the significance of word selection when describing synthetic biology to the general public. In particular, many leaders proposed the word "create" was laden with negative connotations. We found that word choice and framing does affect public perception of synthetic biology. In a controlled experiment, participants perceived synthetic biology more negatively when "create" was used to describe the field compared to "construct" (p = 0.008. Contrary to popular opinion among synthetic biologists, however, low religiosity individuals were more influenced negatively by the framing manipulation than high religiosity people. Our results suggest that synthetic biologists directly influence public perception of their field through avoidance of the word "create".

  20. Mechanical invariants are implicated in dynamic touch as a function of their salience in the stimulus flow

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van de Langenberg, R.W.; Kingma, I.; Beek, P.J.

    2006-01-01

    The authors investigated the mechanical basis of length perception through dynamic touch using specially designed rods in which the various moments of mass distribution (mass, static moment, and rotational inertia) were varied independently. In a series of 4 experiments, exploration style and rod

  1. Design and algorithm research of high precision airborne infrared touch screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Xiao-Bing; Wang, Shuang-Jie; Fu, Yan; Chen, Zhao-Quan

    2016-10-01

    There are shortcomings of low precision, touch shaking, and sharp decrease of touch precision when emitting and receiving tubes are failure in the infrared touch screen. A high precision positioning algorithm based on extended axis is proposed to solve these problems. First, the unimpeded state of the beam between emitting and receiving tubes is recorded as 0, while the impeded state is recorded as 1. Then, the method of oblique scan is used, in which the light of one emitting tube is used for five receiving tubes. The impeded information of all emitting and receiving tubes is collected as matrix. Finally, according to the method of arithmetic average, the position of the touch object is calculated. The extended axis positioning algorithm is characteristic of high precision in case of failure of individual infrared tube and affects slightly the precision. The experimental result shows that the 90% display area of the touch error is less than 0.25D, where D is the distance between adjacent emitting tubes. The conclusion is gained that the algorithm based on extended axis has advantages of high precision, little impact when individual infrared tube is failure, and using easily.

  2. The Role of Affective and Cognitive Individual Differences in Social Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aquino, Antonio; Haddock, Geoffrey; Maio, Gregory R; Wolf, Lukas J; Alparone, Francesca R

    2016-06-01

    Three studies explored the connection between social perception processes and individual differences in the use of affective and cognitive information in relation to attitudes. Study 1 revealed that individuals high in need for affect (NFA) accentuated differences in evaluations of warm and cold traits, whereas individuals high in need for cognition (NFC) accentuated differences in evaluations of competent and incompetent traits. Study 2 revealed that individual differences in NFA predicted liking of warm or cold targets, whereas individual differences in NFC predicted perceptions of competent or incompetent targets. Furthermore, the effects of NFA and NFC were independent of structural bases and meta-bases of attitudes. Study 3 revealed that differences in the evaluation of warm and cold traits mediated the effects of NFA and NFC on liking of targets. The implications for social perception processes and for individual differences in affect-cognition are discussed. © 2016 by the Society for Personality and Social Psychology, Inc.

  3. Categorical Perception of Affective and Linguistic Facial Expressions

    Science.gov (United States)

    McCullough, Stephen; Emmorey, Karen

    2009-01-01

    Two experiments investigated categorical perception (CP) effects for affective facial expressions and linguistic facial expressions from American Sign Language (ASL) for Deaf native signers and hearing non-signers. Facial expressions were presented in isolation (Experiment 1) or in an ASL verb context (Experiment 2). Participants performed ABX…

  4. Parental Perceptions of Touch between Parents and Infants in the Neonatal Intensive Unit

    Science.gov (United States)

    Whittington, Crystal

    2010-01-01

    The purpose of this qualitative study was to examine the role of touch in the parental experience of having an infant in the NICU. Using a narrative analysis methodology, the researcher interviewed six parents who currently had infants in the NICU. Both mothers and one father were interviewed. Infant ages ranged from 24-28 weeks gestation and all…

  5. From sweeping to the caress: similarities and discrepancies between human and non-human primates' pleasant touch

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura Clara Grandi

    2016-09-01

    Full Text Available Affective touch plays a key role in affiliative behavior, offering a mechanism for the formation and maintenance of social bonds among conspecifics, both in humans and non-human primates. Furthermore, it has been speculated that the CT fiber system is a specific coding channel for affiliative touch that occurs during skin-to-skin interactions with conspecifics. In humans, this touch is commonly referred to as the caress, and its correlation with the CT fiber system has been widely demonstrated. It has been hypothesized that the sweeping touch that occurs during grooming in non-human primates may modulate the CT fibers, with recent preliminary studies on rhesus monkeys supporting this hypothesis. The present mini-review proposes a comparison between the pleasant touch, caress and sweeping of humans and non-human primates, respectively. The currently available data was therefore reviewed regarding i the correlation between pleasant touch and CT fibers both in humans and non-human primates, ii the autonomic effects, iii the encoding at the central nervous system, iv the development from early life to adulthood, and v the potential applications of pleasant touch in the daily lives of both humans and non-human primates. Moreover, by considering both the similarities and discrepancies between the human caress and non-human primate sweeping, a possible evolutionary mechanism can be proposed that has developed from sweeping as a utilitarian action with affiliative meaning among monkeys, to the caress as a purely affective gesture associated with humans.

  6. Memory for Random Time Patterns in Audition, Touch, and Vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kang, HiJee; Lancelin, Denis; Pressnitzer, Daniel

    2018-03-22

    Perception deals with temporal sequences of events, like series of phonemes for audition, dynamic changes in pressure for touch textures, or moving objects for vision. Memory processes are thus needed to make sense of the temporal patterning of sensory information. Recently, we have shown that auditory temporal patterns could be learned rapidly and incidentally with repeated exposure [Kang et al., 2017]. Here, we tested whether rapid incidental learning of temporal patterns was specific to audition, or if it was a more general property of sensory systems. We used a same behavioral task in three modalities: audition, touch, and vision, for stimuli having identical temporal statistics. Participants were presented with sequences of acoustic pulses for audition, motion pulses to the fingertips for touch, or light pulses for vision. Pulses were randomly and irregularly spaced, with all inter-pulse intervals in the sub-second range and all constrained to be longer than the temporal acuity in any modality. This led to pulse sequences with an average inter-pulse interval of 166 ms, a minimum inter-pulse interval of 60 ms, and a total duration of 1.2 s. Results showed that, if a random temporal pattern re-occurred at random times during an experimental block, it was rapidly learned, whatever the sensory modality. Moreover, patterns first learned in the auditory modality displayed transfer of learning to either touch or vision. This suggests that sensory systems may be exquisitely tuned to incidentally learn re-occurring temporal patterns, with possible cross-talk between the senses. Copyright © 2018 IBRO. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Bacterial contamination of computer touch screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gerba, Charles P; Wuollet, Adam L; Raisanen, Peter; Lopez, Gerardo U

    2016-03-01

    The goal of this study was to determine the occurrence of opportunistic bacterial pathogens on the surfaces of computer touch screens used in hospitals and grocery stores. Opportunistic pathogenic bacteria were isolated on touch screens in hospitals; Clostridium difficile and vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus and in grocery stores; methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Enteric bacteria were more common on grocery store touch screens than on hospital computer touch screens. Published by Elsevier Inc.

  8. TOUCH, TOUCH, TOUCH, SENSORIAL COGNITIVE SKILLS SENSITIZED THROUGH TACTILITY AND TANGIBILITY

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Wendrich, Robert E.

    2018-01-01

    This paper presents the development and testing of an original user interface ()UI) based on the sense of touch. A tangible user interface (TUI) project that includes the exploration of haptics, design processes, hybrid design tools and unconventional user interfaces (NUI) that focus essentially on

  9. Emotion-prints: interaction-driven emotion visualization on multi-touch interfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cernea, Daniel; Weber, Christopher; Ebert, Achim; Kerren, Andreas

    2015-01-01

    Emotions are one of the unique aspects of human nature, and sadly at the same time one of the elements that our technological world is failing to capture and consider due to their subtlety and inherent complexity. But with the current dawn of new technologies that enable the interpretation of emotional states based on techniques involving facial expressions, speech and intonation, electrodermal response (EDS) and brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), we are finally able to access real-time user emotions in various system interfaces. In this paper we introduce emotion-prints, an approach for visualizing user emotional valence and arousal in the context of multi-touch systems. Our goal is to offer a standardized technique for representing user affective states in the moment when and at the location where the interaction occurs in order to increase affective self-awareness, support awareness in collaborative and competitive scenarios, and offer a framework for aiding the evaluation of touch applications through emotion visualization. We show that emotion-prints are not only independent of the shape of the graphical objects on the touch display, but also that they can be applied regardless of the acquisition technique used for detecting and interpreting user emotions. Moreover, our representation can encode any affective information that can be decomposed or reduced to Russell's two-dimensional space of valence and arousal. Our approach is enforced by a BCI-based user study and a follow-up discussion of advantages and limitations.

  10. Touch screens go optical

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hanson, Steen Grüner; Jakobsen, Michael Linde; Pedersen, Henrik Chresten

    2012-01-01

    A simple optical implementation of a touch screen is made possible by disrupting the total internal reflection in a 2D waveguide.......A simple optical implementation of a touch screen is made possible by disrupting the total internal reflection in a 2D waveguide....

  11. The influence of a working memory task on affective perception of facial expressions.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Seung-Lark Lim

    Full Text Available In a dual-task paradigm, participants performed a spatial location working memory task and a forced two-choice perceptual decision task (neutral vs. fearful with gradually morphed emotional faces (neutral ∼ fearful. Task-irrelevant word distractors (negative, neutral, and control were experimentally manipulated during spatial working memory encoding. We hypothesized that, if affective perception is influenced by concurrent cognitive load using a working memory task, task-irrelevant emotional distractors would bias subsequent perceptual decision-making on ambiguous facial expression. We found that when either neutral or negative emotional words were presented as task-irrelevant working-memory distractors, participants more frequently reported fearful face perception - but only at the higher emotional intensity levels of morphed faces. Also, the affective perception bias due to negative emotional distractors correlated with a decrease in working memory performance. Taken together, our findings suggest that concurrent working memory load by task-irrelevant distractors has an impact on affective perception of facial expressions.

  12. The Affective Bases of Risk Perception: Negative Feelings and Stress Mediate the Relationship between Mental Imagery and Risk Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Sobkow, Agata; Traczyk, Jakub; Zaleskiewicz, Tomasz

    2016-01-01

    Recent research has documented that affect plays a crucial role in risk perception. When no information about numerical risk estimates is available (e.g., probability of loss or magnitude of consequences), people may rely on positive and negative affect toward perceived risk. However, determinants of affective reactions to risks are poorly understood. In a series of three experiments, we addressed the question of whether and to what degree mental imagery eliciting negative affect and stress influences risk perception. In each experiment, participants were instructed to visualize consequences of risk taking and to rate riskiness. In Experiment 1, participants who imagined negative risk consequences reported more negative affect and perceived risk as higher compared to the control condition. In Experiment 2, we found that this effect was driven by affect elicited by mental imagery rather than its vividness and intensity. In this study, imagining positive risk consequences led to lower perceived risk than visualizing negative risk consequences. Finally, we tested the hypothesis that negative affect related to higher perceived risk was caused by negative feelings of stress. In Experiment 3, we introduced risk-irrelevant stress to show that participants in the stress condition rated perceived risk as higher in comparison to the control condition. This experiment showed that higher ratings of perceived risk were influenced by psychological stress. Taken together, our results demonstrate that affect-laden mental imagery dramatically changes risk perception through negative affect (i.e., psychological stress).

  13. Social touch technology : extending the reach of social touch through haptic technology

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs

    2017-01-01

    The skin not only protects the body from harm but, through receptors found in the skin, also enables the sense of touch. The sense of touch is used to obtain information about the world outside the body, for example, the shape and weight of a book or the texture of its cover. However, the sense of

  14. Does the Perception that Stress Affects Health Matter? The Association with Health and Mortality

    Science.gov (United States)

    Keller, Abiola; Litzelman, Kristin; Wisk, Lauren E.; Maddox, Torsheika; Cheng, Erika Rose; Creswell, Paul D.; Witt, Whitney P.

    2012-01-01

    Objective This study sought to examine the relationship among the amount of stress, the perception that stress affects health, and health and mortality outcomes in a nationally-representative sample of U.S. adults. Methods Data from the 1998 National Health Interview Survey were linked to prospective National Death Index mortality data through 2006. Separate logistic regression models were used to examine the factors associated with current health status and psychological distress. Cox proportional hazard models were used to determine the impact of perceiving that stress affects health on all-cause mortality. Each model specifically examined the interaction between the amount of stress and the perception that stress affects health, controlling for sociodemographic, health behavior, and access to healthcare factors. Results 33.7% of nearly 186 million (n=28,753) U.S. adults perceived that stress affected their health a lot or to some extent. Both higher levels of reported stress and the perception that stress affects health were independently associated with an increased likelihood of worse health and mental health outcomes. The amount of stress and the perception that stress affects health interacted such that those who reported a lot of stress and that stress impacted their health a lot had a 43% increased risk of premature death (HR = 1.43, 95% CI [1.20, 1.71]). Conclusions High amounts of stress and the perception that stress impacts health are each associated with poor health and mental health. Individuals who perceived that stress affects their health and reported a large amount of stress had an increased risk of premature death. PMID:22201278

  15. Instructor Touch Enhanced College Students' Evaluations

    Science.gov (United States)

    Legg, Angela M.; Wilson, Janie H.

    2013-01-01

    Touch between people is associated with several outcomes, including reduced stress, more positive mood, enhanced feelings of closeness, and positive behavioral change. However, the potential utility of touch rarely has been examined in a college sample, with teachers touching their students. In the present study, we used instrumental touch…

  16. User Authentication based on Continuous Touch Biometrics

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Christina J Kroeze

    2016-12-01

    Full Text Available Mobile devices such as smartphones have until now been protected by traditional authentication methods, including passwords or pattern locks. These authentication mechanisms are difficult to remember and are often disabled, leaving the device vulnerable if stolen. This paper investigates the possibility of unobtrusive, continuous authentication for smartphones based on biometric data collected using a touchscreen. The possibility of authenticating users on a smartphone was evaluated by conducting an experiment simulating real-world touch interaction. Touch data was collected from 30 participants during normal phone use. The touch features were analysed in terms of the information provided for authentication. It was found that features such as finger pressure, location of touch interaction and shape of the finger were important discriminators for authentication. The touch data was also analysed using two classification algorithms to measure the authentication accuracy. The results show that touch data is sufficiently distinct between users to be used in authentication without disrupting normal touch interaction. It is also shown that the raw touch data was more effective in authentication than the aggregated gesture data.

  17. Affectionate Touch to Promote Relational, Psychological, and Physical Well-Being in Adulthood: A Theoretical Model and Review of the Research.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jakubiak, Brittany K; Feeney, Brooke C

    2017-08-01

    Throughout the life span, individuals engage in affectionate touch with close others. Touch receipt promotes well-being in infancy, but the impacts of touch in adult close relationships have been largely unexplored. In this article, we propose that affectionate touch receipt promotes relational, psychological, and physical well-being in adulthood, and we present a theoretical mechanistic model to explain why affectionate touch may promote these outcomes. The model includes pathways through which touch could affect well-being by reducing stress and by promoting well-being independent of stress. Specifically, two immediate outcomes of affectionate touch receipt-relational-cognitive changes and neurobiological changes-are described as important mechanisms underlying the effects of affectionate touch on well-being. We also review and evaluate the existing research linking affectionate touch to well-being in adulthood and propose an agenda to advance research in this area. This theoretical perspective provides a foundation for future work on touch in adult close relationships.

  18. Teachers' Perception of the Factors Affecting Job Satisfaction in ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Toshiba

    perception of salary as a factor affecting job satisfaction. Also, there .... Thus workers now have higher purchasing power, are given opportunity to use their .... Z-Cal. Z-Crit Significant. Level decision. Female. 70 12.73 3.23. Teachers. 0.32. 1.96.

  19. Cultural differences in affect intensity perception in the context of advertising.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pogosyan, Marianna; Engelmann, Jan B

    2011-01-01

    Cultural differences in the perception of positive affect intensity within an advertising context were investigated among American, Japanese, and Russian participants. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of facial expressions of positive emotions, which displayed either subtle, low intensity, or salient, high intensity expressions of positive affect. In agreement with previous findings from cross-cultural psychological research, current results demonstrate both cross-cultural agreement and differences in the perception of positive affect intensity across the three cultures. Specifically, American participants perceived high arousal (HA) images as significantly less calm than participants from the other two cultures, while the Japanese participants perceived low arousal (LA) images as significantly more excited than participants from the other cultures. The underlying mechanisms of these cultural differences were further investigated through difference scores that probed for cultural differences in perception and categorization of positive emotions. Findings indicate that rating differences are due to (1) perceptual differences in the extent to which HA images were discriminated from LA images, and (2) categorization differences in the extent to which facial expressions were grouped into affect intensity categories. Specifically, American participants revealed significantly higher perceptual differentiation between arousal levels of facial expressions in high and intermediate intensity categories. Japanese participants, on the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants. These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity. Implications of these results for global advertising are discussed.

  20. Cultural differences in affect intensity perception in the context of advertising

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Marianna ePogosyan

    2011-11-01

    Full Text Available Cultural differences in the perception of positive affect intensity within an advertising context were investigated among American, Japanese and Russian participants. Participants were asked to rate the intensity of facial expressions of positive emotions, which displayed either subtle, low intensity or salient, high intensity expressions of positive affect. In agreement with previous findings from cross-cultural psychological research, current results demonstrate both cross-cultural agreement and differences in the perception of positive affect intensity across the three cultures. Specifically, American participants perceived high arousal images as significantly less calm than participants from the other two cultures, while the Japanese participants perceived low arousal images as significantly more excited than participants from the other cultures. The underlying mechanisms of these cultural differences were further investigated through difference scores that probed for cultural differences in perception and categorization of positive emotions. Findings indicate that rating differences are due to (1 perceptual differences in the extent to which high arousal images were discriminated from low arousal images, and (2 categorization differences in the extent to which facial expressions were grouped into affect intensity categories. Specifically, American participants revealed significantly higher perceptual differentiation between arousal levels of facial expressions in high and intermediate intensity categories. Japanese participants, on the other hand, did not discriminate between high and low arousal affect categories to the same extent as did the American and Russian participants. These findings indicate the presence of cultural differences in underlying decoding mechanisms of facial expressions of positive affect intensity. Implications of these results for cross-cultural communication and global advertising are discussed.

  1. A touch of gastronomy

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Spence, C.; Hobkinson, C.; Gallace, A.; Piqueras Fiszman, B.

    2013-01-01

    The last few years have seen a rapid growth of research interest in the study of the role of touch and oralsomatosensation in the experience of eating and drinking. The various ways in which the sense of touch can be used to enhance the diner’s/consumer’s experience in both everyday eating and

  2. Dynamic causal modeling of touch-evoked potentials in the rubber hand illusion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zeller, Daniel; Friston, Karl J; Classen, Joseph

    2016-09-01

    The neural substrate of bodily ownership can be disclosed by the rubber hand illusion (RHI); namely, the illusory self-attribution of an artificial hand that is induced by synchronous tactile stimulation of the subject's hand that is hidden from view. Previous studies have pointed to the premotor cortex (PMC) as a pivotal area in such illusions. To investigate the effective connectivity between - and within - sensory and premotor areas involved in bodily perceptions, we used dynamic causal modeling of touch-evoked responses in 13 healthy subjects. Each subject's right hand was stroked while viewing their own hand ("REAL"), or an artificial hand presented in an anatomically plausible ("CONGRUENT") or implausible ("INCONGRUENT") position. Bayesian model comparison revealed strong evidence for a differential involvement of the PMC in the generation of touch-evoked responses under the three conditions, confirming a crucial role of PMC in bodily self-attribution. In brief, the extrinsic (forward) connection from left occipital cortex to left PMC was stronger for CONGRUENT and INCONGRUENT as compared to REAL, reflecting the augmentation of bottom-up visual input when multisensory integration is challenged. Crucially, intrinsic connectivity in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) was attenuated in the CONGRUENT condition, during the illusory percept. These findings support predictive coding models of the functional architecture of multisensory integration (and attenuation) in bodily perceptual experience. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Borderline personality disorder symptoms and affective responding to perceptions of rejection and acceptance from romantic versus nonromantic partners.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lazarus, Sophie A; Scott, Lori N; Beeney, Joseph E; Wright, Aidan G C; Stepp, Stephanie D; Pilkonis, Paul A

    2018-05-01

    We examined event-contingent recording of daily interpersonal interactions in a diagnostically diverse sample of 101 psychiatric outpatients who were involved in a romantic relationship. We tested whether the unique effect of borderline personality disorder (BPD) symptoms on affective responses (i.e., hostility, sadness, guilt, fear, and positive affect) to perceptions of rejection or acceptance differed with one's romantic partner compared with nonromantic partners. BPD symptoms were associated with more frequent perceptions of rejection and less frequent perceptions of acceptance across the study. For all participants, perceptions of rejecting behavior were associated with higher within-person negative affect and lower within-person positive affect. As predicted, in interactions with romantic partners only, those with high BPD symptoms reported heightened hostility and, to a lesser extent, attenuated sadness in response to perceptions of rejection. BPD symptoms did not moderate associations between perceptions of rejection and guilt, fear, or positive affect across romantic and nonromantic partners. For all participants, perceived acceptance was associated with lower within-person negative affect and higher within-person positive affect. However, BPD symptoms were associated with attenuated positive affect in response to perceptions of accepting behavior in interactions with romantic partners only. BPD symptoms did not moderate associations between perceptions of acceptance and any of the negative affects across romantic and nonromantic partners. This study highlights the specificity of affective responses characteristic of BPD when comparisons are made with patients with other personality and psychiatric disorders. Implications for romantic relationship dysfunction are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  4. Factors affecting perceptions of corporate social responsibility implementation: an emphasis on values

    OpenAIRE

    Wang, Lei

    2011-01-01

    This dissertation is a broad study of factors affecting perceptions of CSR issues in multiple stakeholder realms, the main purpose being to determine the effects of the values of individuals on their perceptions regarding CSR. It examines perceptions of CSR both at the emic (observing individuals and stakeholders) and etic levels (conducting cross-cultural comparison) through a descriptive-empirical research strategy. The dissertation is based on quantitative interview data among Chinese, Fin...

  5. Exploring Touch Communication Between Coaches and Athletes ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Exploring Touch Communication Between Coaches and Athletes. ... Proceeding from a review of the literature on human touch communication to examine research on the power of touch to exchange relational ... AJOL African Journals Online.

  6. The magnetic touch illusion: A perceptual correlate of visuo-tactile integration in peripersonal space.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guterstam, Arvid; Zeberg, Hugo; Özçiftci, Vedat Menderes; Ehrsson, H Henrik

    2016-10-01

    To accurately localize our limbs and guide movements toward external objects, the brain must represent the body and its surrounding (peripersonal) visual space. Specific multisensory neurons encode peripersonal space in the monkey brain, and neurobehavioral studies have suggested the existence of a similar representation in humans. However, because peripersonal space lacks a distinct perceptual correlate, its involvement in spatial and bodily perception remains unclear. Here, we show that applying brushstrokes in mid-air at some distance above a rubber hand-without touching it-in synchrony with brushstrokes applied to a participant's hidden real hand results in the illusory sensation of a "magnetic force" between the brush and the rubber hand, which strongly correlates with the perception of the rubber hand as one's own. In eight experiments, we characterized this "magnetic touch illusion" by using quantitative subjective reports, motion tracking, and behavioral data consisting of pointing errors toward the rubber hand in an intermanual pointing task. We found that the illusion depends on visuo-tactile synchrony and exhibits similarities with the visuo-tactile receptive field properties of peripersonal space neurons, featuring a non-linear decay at 40cm that is independent of gaze direction and follows changes in the rubber hand position. Moreover, the "magnetic force" does not penetrate physical barriers, thus further linking this phenomenon to body-specific visuo-tactile integration processes. These findings provide strong support for the notion that multisensory integration within peripersonal space underlies bodily self-attribution. Furthermore, we propose that the magnetic touch illusion constitutes a perceptual correlate of visuo-tactile integration in peripersonal space. Copyright © 2016 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  7. ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY VERIFICATION REPORT LASER TOUCH AND TECHNOLOGIES, LLC LASER TOUCH MODEL LT-B512

    Science.gov (United States)

    The Environmental Technology Verification report discusses the technology and performance of Laser Touch model LT-B512 targeting device manufactured by Laser Touch and Technologies, LLC, for manual spray painting operations. The relative transfer efficiency (TE) improved an avera...

  8. Affective and physiological correlates of the perception of unimodal and bimodal emotional stimuli.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rosa, Pedro J; Oliveira, Jorge; Alghazzawi, Daniyal; Fardoun, Habib; Gamito, Pedro

    2017-08-01

    Despite the multisensory nature of perception, previous research on emotions has been focused on unimodal emotional cues with visual stimuli. To the best of our knowledge, there is no evidence on the extent to which incongruent emotional cues from visual and auditory sensory channels affect pupil size. To investigate the effects of audiovisual emotional information perception on the physiological and affective response, but also to determine the impact of mismatched cues in emotional perception on these physiological indexes. Pupil size, electrodermal activity and affective subjective responses were recorded while 30 participants were exposed to visual and auditory stimuli with varied emotional content in three different experimental conditions: pictures and sounds presented alone (unimodal), emotionally matched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal congruent) and emotionally mismatched audio-visual stimuli (bimodal incongruent). The data revealed no effect of emotional incongruence on physiological and affective responses. On the other hand, pupil size covaried with skin conductance response (SCR), but the subjective experience was partially dissociated from autonomic responses. Emotional stimuli are able to trigger physiological responses regardless of valence, sensory modality or level of emotional congruence.

  9. Factors affecting the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in inpatient units: perception of nurses

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Clairton Marcos Citolino Filho

    2015-12-01

    Full Text Available Abstract OBJECTIVE To identify, in the perception of nurses, the factors that affect the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR in adult inpatient units, and investigate the influence of both work shifts and professional experience length of time in the perception of these factors. METHOD A descriptive, exploratory study conducted at a hospital specialized in cardiology and pneumology with the application of a questionnaire to 49 nurses working in inpatient units. RESULTS The majority of nurses reported that the high number of professionals in the scenario (75.5%, the lack of harmony (77.6% or stress of any member of staff (67.3%, lack of material and/or equipment failure (57.1%, lack of familiarity with the emergency trolleys (98.0% and presence of family members at the beginning of the cardiopulmonary arrest assistance (57.1% are factors that adversely affect the quality of care provided during CPR. Professional experience length of time and the shift of nurses did not influence the perception of these factors. CONCLUSION The identification of factors that affect the quality of CPR in the perception of nurses serves as parameter to implement improvements and training of the staff working in inpatient units.

  10. Optical touch screen based on waveguide sensing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Henrik Chresten; Jakobsen, Michael Linde; Hanson, Steen Grüner

    2011-01-01

    We disclose a simple, optical touch screen technique based on a planar injection molded polymer waveguide, a single laser, and a small linear detector array. The solution significantly reduces the complexity and cost as compared to existing optical touch technologies. Force detection of a touching...

  11. The Meaning of Touch to Patients Undergoing Chemotherapy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leonard, Katherine E; Kalman, Melanie

    2015-09-01

    To explore the experience of being touched in people diagnosed with cancer and undergoing IV chemotherapy.
 Qualitative, phenomenologic.
 Central New York and northern Pennsylvania, both in the northeastern United States
. 11 Caucasian, English-speaking adults.
. Individual interviews used open-ended questions to explore the meaning of being touched to each participant. Meanings of significant statements, which pertained to the phenomenon under investigation, were formulated hermeneutically. Themes were derived from immersion in the data and extraction of similar and divergent concepts among all interviews, yielding a multidimensional understanding of the meaning of being touched in this sample of participants
. Participants verbalized awareness of and sensitivity to the regard of others who were touching them, including healthcare providers, family, and friends. Patients do not classify a provider's touch as either task or comfort oriented. Meanings evolved in the context of three primary themes. The experience of being touched encompasses the quality of presence of providers, family, or friends. For touch to be regarded as positive, patients must be regarded as inherently whole and equal. The quality of how touch is received is secondary to and flows from the relationship established between patient and provider
. This study adds to the literature in its finding that the fundamental quality of the relationship between patient and provider establishes the perceived quality of touch. Previous studies have primarily divided touch into two categories.

  12. The TaSST: Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, G.; Darriba Frederiks, A.; van Dijk, B.; Heylen, D.; Kröse, B.

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we outline the design process of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touch over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  13. The TaSST: Tactile sleeve for social touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; van Dijk, Elisabeth M.A.G.; Heylen, Dirk K.J.; Krose, Ben

    In this paper we outline the design process of the TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touch over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  14. The TaSST - Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Darriba Frederiks, Aduén; Van Dijk, Betsy; Heylen, Dirk

    2013-01-01

    In this paper we outline the design process of TaSST (Tactile Sleeve for Social Touch), a touch-sensitive vibrotactile arm sleeve. The TaSST was designed to enable two people to communicate different types of touches over a distance. The touch-sensitive surface of the sleeve consists of a grid of

  15. The Use of Touch in Therapy: Can We Talk?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Taylor, Melanie A.

    The empirical literature regarding the use of nonerotic touch in psychotherapy is reviewed. Theoretical and ethical concerns are discussed, including the taboo against touching clients, situations in which touch may be appropriate, and whether or not nonerotic touch leads to erotic touch. It is difficult to design controlled studies for ongoing…

  16. Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors affecting the self-perception period of lower urinary tract symptoms of international prostate symptom score items.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, J H; Shim, S R; Lee, W J; Kim, H J; Kwon, S-S; Bae, J H

    2012-12-01

    This study investigated the influence of sociodemographic and lifestyle factors on the lower urinary tract symptom (LUTS) self-perception period and International Prostate Symptom Score. This cross-sectional study examined 209 men aged ≥ 40 years with non-treated LUTS who participated in a prostate examination survey. Questions included International Prostate Symptom Score (IPSS) items with self-perception periods for each item. Sociodemographic and lifestyle factors were also assessed. Participants were divided by mild LUTS (IPSS less than 8) and moderate-to-severe LUTS (IPSS 8 or higher). Self-perception period of the moderate-to-severe LUTS (n = 110) was affected by BMI; the self-perception period of the mild LUTS (n = 90) was affected by age, income, occupation and concomitant disease. Moderate-to-severe LUTS were affected by self-perception period (p = 0.03). Self-perception period was affected by concern for health (p = 0.005) by multivariate analysis, and self-perception period of mild LUTS was affected by BMI (p = 0.012). Moderate-to-severe LUTS were affected by age, number of family members, concern for health and drinking (p self-perception period. In moderate-to-severe LUTS, age, concern for health and drinking were affecting factors of self-perception period. © 2012 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

  17. The affect heuristic, mortality salience, and risk: domain-specific effects of a natural disaster on risk-benefit perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Västfjäll, Daniel; Peters, Ellen; Slovic, Paul

    2014-12-01

    We examine how affect and accessible thoughts following a major natural disaster influence everyday risk perception. A survey was conducted in the months following the 2004 south Asian Tsunami in a representative sample of the Swedish population (N = 733). Respondents rated their experienced affect as well as the perceived risk and benefits of various everyday decision domains. Affect influenced risk and benefit perception in a way that could be predicted from both the affect-congruency and affect heuristic literatures (increased risk perception and stronger risk-benefit correlations). However, in some decision domains, self-regulation goals primed by the natural disaster predicted risk and benefit ratings. Together, these results show that affect, accessible thoughts and motivational states influence perceptions of risks and benefits. © 2014 Scandinavian Psychological Associations and John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Fast feedback in active sensing: touch-induced changes to whisker-object interaction.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Dudi Deutsch

    Full Text Available Whisking mediated touch is an active sense whereby whisker movements are modulated by sensory input and behavioral context. Here we studied the effects of touching an object on whisking in head-fixed rats. Simultaneous movements of whiskers C1, C2, and D1 were tracked bilaterally and their movements compared. During free-air whisking, whisker protractions were typically characterized by a single acceleration-deceleration event, whisking amplitude and velocity were correlated, and whisk duration correlated with neither amplitude nor velocity. Upon contact with an object, a second acceleration-deceleration event occurred in about 25% of whisk cycles, involving both contacting (C2 and non-contacting (C1, D1 whiskers ipsilateral to the object. In these cases, the rostral whisker (C2 remained in contact with the object throughout the double-peak phase, which effectively prolonged the duration of C2 contact. These "touch-induced pumps" (TIPs were detected, on average, 17.9 ms after contact. On a slower time scale, starting at the cycle following first touch, contralateral amplitude increased while ipsilateral amplitude decreased. Our results demonstrate that sensory-induced motor modulations occur at various timescales, and directly affect object palpation.

  19. You can't touch this: touch-free navigation through radiological images.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ebert, Lars C; Hatch, Gary; Ampanozi, Garyfalia; Thali, Michael J; Ross, Steffen

    2012-09-01

    Keyboards, mice, and touch screens are a potential source of infection or contamination in operating rooms, intensive care units, and autopsy suites. The authors present a low-cost prototype of a system, which allows for touch-free control of a medical image viewer. This touch-free navigation system consists of a computer system (IMac, OS X 10.6 Apple, USA) with a medical image viewer (OsiriX, OsiriX foundation, Switzerland) and a depth camera (Kinect, Microsoft, USA). They implemented software that translates the data delivered by the camera and a voice recognition software into keyboard and mouse commands, which are then passed to OsiriX. In this feasibility study, the authors introduced 10 medical professionals to the system and asked them to re-create 12 images from a CT data set. They evaluated response times and usability of the system compared with standard mouse/keyboard control. Users felt comfortable with the system after approximately 10 minutes. Response time was 120 ms. Users required 1.4 times more time to re-create an image with gesture control. Users with OsiriX experience were significantly faster using the mouse/keyboard and faster than users without prior experience. They rated the system 3.4 out of 5 for ease of use in comparison to the mouse/keyboard. The touch-free, gesture-controlled system performs favorably and removes a potential vector for infection, protecting both patients and staff. Because the camera can be quickly and easily integrated into existing systems, requires no calibration, and is low cost, the barriers to using this technology are low.

  20. The Tripartite Model of Risk Perception (TRIRISK): Distinguishing Deliberative, Affective, and Experiential Components of Perceived Risk.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ferrer, Rebecca A; Klein, William M P; Persoskie, Alexander; Avishai-Yitshak, Aya; Sheeran, Paschal

    2016-10-01

    Although risk perception is a key predictor in health behavior theories, current conceptions of risk comprise only one (deliberative) or two (deliberative vs. affective/experiential) dimensions. This research tested a tripartite model that distinguishes among deliberative, affective, and experiential components of risk perception. In two studies, and in relation to three common diseases (cancer, heart disease, diabetes), we used confirmatory factor analyses to examine the factor structure of the tripartite risk perception (TRIRISK) model and compared the fit of the TRIRISK model to dual-factor and single-factor models. In a third study, we assessed concurrent validity by examining the impact of cancer diagnosis on (a) levels of deliberative, affective, and experiential risk perception, and (b) the strength of relations among risk components, and tested predictive validity by assessing relations with behavioral intentions to prevent cancer. The tripartite factor structure was supported, producing better model fit across diseases (studies 1 and 2). Inter-correlations among the components were significantly smaller among participants who had been diagnosed with cancer, suggesting that affected populations make finer-grained distinctions among risk perceptions (study 3). Moreover, all three risk perception components predicted unique variance in intentions to engage in preventive behavior (study 3). The TRIRISK model offers both a novel conceptualization of health-related risk perceptions, and new measures that enhance predictive validity beyond that engendered by unidimensional and bidimensional models. The present findings have implications for the ways in which risk perceptions are targeted in health behavior change interventions, health communications, and decision aids.

  1. Understanding the Cognitive and Affective Mechanisms that Underlie Proxy Risk Perceptions among Caregivers of Asthmatic Children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Shepperd, James A; Lipsey, Nikolette P; Pachur, Thorsten; Waters, Erika A

    2018-07-01

    Medical decisions made on behalf of another person-particularly those made by adult caregivers for their minor children-are often informed by the decision maker's beliefs about the treatment's risks and benefits. However, we know little about the cognitive and affective mechanisms influencing such "proxy" risk perceptions and about how proxy risk perceptions are related to prominent judgment phenomena. Adult caregivers of minor children with asthma ( N = 132) completed an online, cross-sectional survey assessing 1) cognitions and affects that form the basis of the availability, representativeness, and affect heuristics; 2) endorsement of the absent-exempt and the better-than-average effect; and 3) proxy perceived risk and unrealistic comparative optimism of an asthma exacerbation. We used the Pediatric Asthma Control and Communication Instrument (PACCI) to assess asthma severity. Respondents with higher scores on availability, representativeness, and negative affect indicated higher proxy risk perceptions and (for representativeness only) lower unrealistic optimism, irrespective of asthma severity. Conversely, respondents who showed a stronger display of the better-than-average effect indicated lower proxy risk perceptions but did not differ in unrealistic optimism. The absent-exempt effect was unrelated to proxy risk perceptions and unrealistic optimism. Heuristic judgment processes appear to contribute to caregivers' proxy risk perceptions of their child's asthma exacerbation risk. Moreover, the display of other, possibly erroneous, judgment phenomena is associated with lower caregiver risk perceptions. Designing interventions that target these mechanisms may help caregivers work with their children to reduce exacerbation risk.

  2. Affective and behavioral responses to robot-initiated social touch : Towards understanding the opportunities and limitations of physical contact in human-robot interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Willemse, C.J.A.M.; Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van

    2017-01-01

    Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human–robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for

  3. Affective and Behavioral Responses to Robot-Initiated Social Touch : Toward Understanding the Opportunities and Limitations of Physical Contact in Human–Robot Interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Willemse, Christian J. A. M.; Toet, Alexander; van Erp, Jan B. F.

    2017-01-01

    Social touch forms an important aspect of the human non-verbal communication repertoire, but is often overlooked in human-robot interaction. In this study, we investigated whether robot-initiated touches can induce physiological, emotional, and behavioral responses similar to those reported for

  4. Bodily pleasure matters: Velocity of touch modulates body ownership during the rubber hand illusion

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Laura eCrucianelli

    2013-10-01

    Full Text Available The sense of body ownership represents a fundamental aspect of our self-consciousness. Influential experimental paradigms, such as the rubber hand illusion (RHI, in which a seen rubber hand is experienced as part of one’s body when one’s own unseen hand receives congruent tactile stimulation, have extensively examined the role of exteroceptive, multisensory integration on body ownership. However, remarkably, despite the more general current interest in the nature and role of interoception in emotion and consciousness, no study has investigated how the illusion may be affected by interoceptive bodily signals, such as affective touch. Here, we recruited 52 healthy, adult participants and we investigated for the first time, whether applying slow velocity, light tactile stimuli, known to elicit interoceptive feelings of pleasantness, would influence the illusion more than faster, emotionally-neutral, tactile stimuli. We also examined whether seeing another person’s hand versus a rubber hand would reduce the illusion in slow versus fast stroking conditions, as interoceptive signals are used to represent one’s own body from within and it is unclear how they would be integrated with visual signals from another person’s hand. We found that slow velocity touch was perceived as more pleasant and it produced higher levels of subjective embodiment during the RHI compared with fast touch. Moreover, this effect applied irrespective of whether the seen hand was a rubber or a confederate’s hand. These findings provide support for the idea that affective touch, and more generally interoception, may have a unique contribution to the sense of body ownership, and by implication to our embodied psychological self.

  5. Factors Affecting Parent's Perception on Air Quality-From the Individual to the Community Level.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Guo, Yulin; Liu, Fengfeng; Lu, Yuanan; Mao, Zongfu; Lu, Hanson; Wu, Yanyan; Chu, Yuanyuan; Yu, Lichen; Liu, Yisi; Ren, Meng; Li, Na; Chen, Xi; Xiang, Hao

    2016-05-12

    The perception of air quality significantly affects the acceptance of the public of the government's environmental policies. The aim of this research is to explore the relationship between the perception of the air quality of parents and scientific monitoring data and to analyze the factors that affect parents' perceptions. Scientific data of air quality were obtained from Wuhan's environmental condition reports. One thousand parents were investigated for their knowledge and perception of air quality. Scientific data show that the air quality of Wuhan follows an improving trend in general, while most participants believed that the air quality of Wuhan has deteriorated, which indicates a significant difference between public perception and reality. On the individual level, respondents with an age of 40 or above (40 or above: OR = 3.252; 95% CI: 1.170-9.040), a higher educational level (college and above: OR = 7.598; 95% CI: 2.244-25.732) or children with poor healthy conditions (poor: OR = 6.864; 95% CI: 2.212-21.302) have much more negative perception of air quality. On the community level, industrial facilities, vehicles and city construction have major effects on parents' perception of air quality. Our investigation provides baseline information for environmental policy researchers and makers regarding the public's perception and expectation of air quality and the benefits to the environmental policy completing and enforcing.

  6. ROSETTA lander Philae: Touch-down reconstruction

    Science.gov (United States)

    Roll, Reinhard; Witte, Lars

    2016-06-01

    The landing of the ROSETTA-mission lander Philae on November 12th 2014 on Comet 67 P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko was planned as a descent with passive landing and anchoring by harpoons at touch-down. Actually the lander was not fixed at touch-down to the ground due to failing harpoons. The lander internal damper was actuated at touch-down for 42.6 mm with a speed of 0.08 m/s while the lander touch-down speed was 1 m/s. The kinetic energy before touch-down was 50 J, 45 J were dissipated by the lander internal damper and by ground penetration at touch-down, and 5 J kinetic energy are left after touch-down (0.325 m/s speed). Most kinetic energy was dissipated by ground penetration (41 J) while only 4 J are dissipated by the lander internal damper. Based on these data, a value for a constant compressive soil-strength of between 1.55 kPa and 1.8 kPa is calculated. This paper focuses on the reconstruction of the touch-down at Agilkia over a period of around 20 s from first ground contact to lift-off again. After rebound Philae left a strange pattern on ground documented by the OSIRIS Narrow Angle Camera (NAC). The analysis shows, that the touch-down was not just a simple damped reflection on the surface. Instead the lander had repeated contacts with the surface over a period of about 20 s±10 s. This paper discusses scenarios for the reconstruction of the landing sequence based on the data available and on computer simulations. Simulations are performed with a dedicated mechanical multi-body model of the lander, which was validated previously in numerous ground tests. The SIMPACK simulation software was used, including the option to set forces at the feet to the ground. The outgoing velocity vector is mostly influenced by the timing of the ground contact of the different feet. It turns out that ground friction during damping has strong impact on the lander outgoing velocity, on its rotation, and on its nutation. After the end of damping, the attitude of the lander can be

  7. The communication of emotion via touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Holmes, Rachel; McCullough, Margaret; Keltner, Dacher

    2009-08-01

    The study of emotional communication has focused predominantly on the facial and vocal channels but has ignored the tactile channel. Participants in the current study were allowed to touch an unacquainted partner on the whole body to communicate distinct emotions. Of interest was how accurately the person being touched decoded the intended emotions without seeing the tactile stimulation. The data indicated that anger, fear, disgust, love, gratitude, and sympathy were decoded at greater than chance levels, as well as happiness and sadness, 2 emotions that have not been shown to be communicated by touch to date. Moreover, fine-grained coding documented specific touch behaviors associated with different emotions. The findings are discussed in terms of their contribution to the study of emotion-related communication. 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

  8. Graphene Tribotronics for Electronic Skin and Touch Screen Applications.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Khan, Usman; Kim, Tae-Ho; Ryu, Hanjun; Seung, Wanchul; Kim, Sang-Woo

    2017-01-01

    Graphene tribotronics is introduced for touch-sensing applications such as electronic skins and touch screens. The devices are based on a coplanar coupling of triboelectrification and current transport in graphene transistors. The touch sensors are ultrasensitive, fast, and stable. Furthermore, they are transparent and flexible, and can spatially map touch stimuli such as movement of a ball, multi-touch, etc. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

  9. Bimanual Interaction with Interscopic Multi-Touch Surfaces

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schöning, Johannes; Steinicke, Frank; Krüger, Antonio; Hinrichs, Klaus; Valkov, Dimitar

    Multi-touch interaction has received considerable attention in the last few years, in particular for natural two-dimensional (2D) interaction. However, many application areas deal with three-dimensional (3D) data and require intuitive 3D interaction techniques therefore. Indeed, virtual reality (VR) systems provide sophisticated 3D user interface, but then lack efficient 2D interaction, and are therefore rarely adopted by ordinary users or even by experts. Since multi-touch interfaces represent a good trade-off between intuitive, constrained interaction on a touch surface providing tangible feedback, and unrestricted natural interaction without any instrumentation, they have the potential to form the foundation of the next generation user interface for 2D as well as 3D interaction. In particular, stereoscopic display of 3D data provides an additional depth cue, but until now the challenges and limitations for multi-touch interaction in this context have not been considered. In this paper we present new multi-touch paradigms and interactions that combine both traditional 2D interaction and novel 3D interaction on a touch surface to form a new class of multi-touch systems, which we refer to as interscopic multi-touch surfaces (iMUTS). We discuss iMUTS-based user interfaces that support interaction with 2D content displayed in monoscopic mode and 3D content usually displayed stereoscopically. In order to underline the potential of the proposed iMUTS setup, we have developed and evaluated two example interaction metaphors for different domains. First, we present intuitive navigation techniques for virtual 3D city models, and then we describe a natural metaphor for deforming volumetric datasets in a medical context.

  10. Therapeutic touch and post-Hurricane Hugo stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olson, M; Sneed, N; Bonadonna, R; Ratliff, J; Dias, J

    1992-06-01

    This repeated-session design sought to answer questions about the effectiveness of therapeutic touch in reduction of stress for 23 individuals following a natural disaster. In addition, methodological issues related to the average length of time for a therapeutic-touch treatment and a method of documenting the nonverbal interaction between subject and toucher were investigated. Findings indicate that stressed people report themselves to be less stressed following therapeutic touch (p = .05). Time of therapeutic-touch intervention varied significantly between the touchers, with a range of 6.8 to 20 minutes. Qualitative data examining the interaction of toucher and subject raised a number of questions that require further study.

  11. Construction Managers’ Perception of the Factors Affecting Sustainability in Construction Projects

    OpenAIRE

    Reza Taheriattar; Morvarid Farzanehrafat

    2014-01-01

    Sustainable construction is a comprehensive concept which requires long-term planning. Moreover, construction managers play a key role in leading, planning and scheduling of a construction project. As a result, sustainability of construction projects can be affected by construction managers’ decisions. In addition, for greater development of sustainable construction, affecting factors should firstly be notified. Therefore, it seems necessary to investigate construction managers’ perception of...

  12. Texture design for skin friction and touch perception of stainless steel surfaces

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhang, Sheng

    2016-01-01

    Tactile perception a concept with mechanical, physiological and psychological perspective, is of particular concern to the industrial companies and research area. The hedonic attributes of tactile perception are influential to our daily life like wearing clothes, using personal care products,

  13. Social touch in human–computer interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erp, J.B.F. van; Toet, A.

    2015-01-01

    Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords

  14. Social touch in human–computer interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van Erp, Johannes Bernardus Fransiscus; Toet, Alexander

    Touch is our primary non-verbal communication channel for conveying intimate emotions and as such essential for our physical and emotional wellbeing. In our digital age, human social interaction is often mediated. However, even though there is increasing evidence that mediated touch affords

  15. The effects of therapeutic touch on pain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Monroe, Carolyn Magdalen

    2009-06-01

    To better understand how Therapeutic Touch can be used in today's health care arena, this integrative literature review will examine current research that will help answer the question, Does Therapeutic Touch reduce pain? An extensive search was conducted of the online databases MEDLINE, CINAHL, Cochrane Library, EMBASE, PsychLIT, and PubMed to retrieve research articles published from 1997 to 2007. Seven studies that were conducted between 1997 and 2004 were found and only five of the seven were included as pertinent evidence to answer the question. All of the research that was reviewed to answer whether Therapeutic Touch could significantly reduce pain revealed a majority of statistically significant positive results for implementing this intervention. Because there are no identified risks to Therapeutic Touch as a pain relief measure, it is safe to recommend despite the limitations of current research. Therapeutic Touch should be considered among the many possible nursing interventions for the treatment of pain.

  16. Fingertip touch improves postural stability in patients with peripheral neuropathy.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dickstein, R; Shupert, C L; Horak, F B

    2001-12-01

    The purpose of this work was to determine whether fingertip touch on a stable surface could improve postural stability during stance in subjects with somatosensory loss in the feet from diabetic peripheral neuropathy. The contribution of fingertip touch to postural stability was determined by comparing postural sway in three touch conditions (light, heavy and none) in eight patients and eight healthy control subjects who stood on two surfaces (firm or foam) with eyes open or closed. In the light touch condition, fingertip touch provided only somatosensory information because subjects exerted less than 1 N of force with their fingertip to a force plate, mounted on a vertical support. In the heavy touch condition, mechanical support was available because subjects transmitted as much force to the force plate as they wished. In the no touch condition, subjects held the right forefinger above the force plate. Antero-posterior (AP) and medio-lateral (ML) root mean square (RMS) of center of pressure (CoP) sway and trunk velocity were larger in subjects with somatosensory loss than in control subjects, especially when standing on the foam surface. The effects of light and heavy touch were similar in the somatosensory loss and control groups. Fingertip somatosensory input through light touch attenuated both AP and ML trunk velocity as much as heavy touch. Light touch also reduced CoP sway compared to no touch, although the decrease in CoP sway was less effective than with heavy touch, particularly on the foam surface. The forces that were applied to the touch plate during light touch preceded movements of the CoP, lending support to the suggestion of a feedforward mechanism in which fingertip inputs trigger the activation of postural muscles for controlling body sway. These results have clinical implications for understanding how patients with peripheral neuropathy may benefit from a cane for postural stability in stance.

  17. Philosophic reflections on the meaning of touch in nurse-patient interactions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Green, Catherine

    2013-10-01

    In this paper I examine the meaning of physical touch as it occurs in the nurse-patient interaction. There are two aspects of the nurse-patient relationship that are found in most nurse-patient interactions which together have profound implications for nurses as practitioners and as individual human persons. The first is the clinical intimacy of the nurse-patient relationship where nurses touch, rub, smooth, clean, dress and otherwise physically interact with patients. The other is the existential crisis, the possibility of loss, suffering and death that lurks at the horizon of most, if not all, healthcare encounters. Edmund Husserl, Merleau-Ponty and more recently Robert Sokolowski argue that tactile sensations and resultant perceptions are fundamental to all sensory perception. Further, they argue that tactile sensation is fundamental for the ongoing constitution of 'my' self as a person and for the development and exercise of human intersubjectivity. If tactile interaction is crucial to the development of our very selves as persons and a significant aspect of our interaction with patients includes direct or observed tactile sensations and if further these sensations occur around the context of existential crises for our patients, then nurse's very selves as persons are being challenged by these interactions. Here, then I examine the philosophical argument for the role of tactile sensations in our human development and briefly look at contemporary neurophysiologic research that supports this philosophical account. I then suggest ways such physical intimacy can lead to a strengthening or weakening of the person of the nurse and the nursing interaction and end with some thoughts about ways to support nurses in these activities. © 2013 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

  18. Performance and touch characteristics of disabled and non-disabled participants during a reciprocal tapping task using touch screen technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Irwin, Curt B; Sesto, Mary E

    2012-11-01

    Touch screens are becoming more prevalent in everyday environments. Therefore, it is important that this technology is accessible to those with varying disabilities. The objective of the current study was to evaluate performance and touch characteristics (forces, impulses, and dwell times) of individuals with and without a movement disorder during a reciprocal tapping touch screen task. Thirty-seven participants with a motor control disability and 15 non-disabled participants participated. Outcome measures include number of correct taps, dwell time, exerted force, and impulse. Results indicate non-disabled participants had 1.8 more taps than participants with fine motor control disabilities and 2.8 times more than those with gross motor impairments (ptouch characteristics exist between those with and without motor control disabilities. Understanding how people (including those with disabilities) interact with touch screens may allow designers and engineers to ultimately improve usability of touch screen technology. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd and The Ergonomics Society. All rights reserved.

  19. Do Young Chinese Children Gain Anthropomorphism after Exposure to Personified Touch-Screen and Board Games?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Hui; Hsueh, Yeh; Wang, Fuxing; Bai, Xuejun; Liu, Tao; Zhou, Li

    2017-01-01

    Research shows that preschoolers are likely to anthropomorphize not only animals, but also inanimate toy after being exposed to books that personify these objects. Can such an effect also arise through young children's use of touch-screen games? The present study is the first to examine whether playing a touch-screen personified train game affects young children's anthropomorphism of real trains. Seventy-nine 4- and 6-year-old children were randomly assigned to play either a touch-screen game or a board game of Thomas the Tank Engine for 10 min. They completed the Individual Differences in Anthropomorphism Questionnaire-Child Form (IDAQ-CF) (two subscales: Technology/Inanimate Nature, Animate Nature) and an additional four items about the anthropomorphism of real trains, before (T1) and after (T2) the game. Overall results showed that children manifested a small but statistically significant increase in anthropomorphizing of real trains after their exposure to both games, claiming that real trains were like humans. Interestingly, 4-year-old children in the board game group tended to anthropomorphize real trains more than those in the touch-screen group, whereas the reverse was true for the 6-year-old children. The results suggest that touch-screen games may delay the decline of children's anthropomorphism during the cognitive and socio-emotional transition that occurs in children aged 5-7. These findings have implications for future research on how touch-screen games increase children's anthropomorphism of the real world, and more generally, for evaluation of the influence of the growing use of touch-screen games on young children's learning.

  20. Three-dimensional touch interface for medical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Panchaphongsaphak, Bundit; Burgkart, Rainer; Riener, Robert

    2007-05-01

    We present the technical principle and evaluation of a multimodal virtual reality (VR) system for medical education, called a touch simulator. This touch simulator comes with an innovative three-dimensional (3-D) touch sensitive input device. The device comprises a six-axis force-torque sensor connected to a tangible object representing the shape of an anatomical structure. Information related to the point of contact is recorded by the sensor, processed, and audiovisually displayed. The touch simulator provides a high level of user-friendliness and fidelity compared to other purely graphically oriented simulation environments. In this paper, the touch simulator has been realized as an interactive neuroanatomical training simulator. The user can visualize and manipulate graphical information of the brain surface or different cross-sectional slices by a finger-touch on a brain-like shaped tangible object. We evaluated the system by theoretical derivations, experiments, and subjective questionnaires. In the theoretical analysis, we could show that the contact point estimation error mainly depends on the accuracy and the noise of the sensor, the amount and direction of the applied force, and the geometry of the tangible object. The theoretical results could be validated by experiments: applying a normal force of 10 N on a 120 mm x 120 mm x 120 mm cube causes a maximum error of 2.5 +/- 0.7 mm. This error becomes smaller when increasing the contact force. Based on the survey results, the touch simulator may be a useful tool for assisting medical schools in the visualization of brain image data and the study of neuroanatomy.

  1. Touching Hearts, Touching Minds: Using Emotion-Based Messaging to Promote Healthful Behavior in the Massachusetts WIC Program

    Science.gov (United States)

    Colchamiro, Rachel; Ghiringhelli, Kara; Hause, Judith

    2010-01-01

    The "Touching Hearts, Touching Minds" initiative was funded through a 2003 United States Department of Agriculture Special Projects grant to revitalize nutrition education and services in the Massachusetts Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) Program. The 30 nutrition education materials and…

  2. How Interviewers' Nonverbal Behaviors Can Affect Children's Perceptions and Suggestibility

    Science.gov (United States)

    Almerigogna, Jehanne; Ost, James; Akehurst, Lucy; Fluck, Mike

    2008-01-01

    We conducted two studies to examine how interviewers' nonverbal behaviors affect children's perceptions and suggestibility. In the first study, 42 8- to 10-year-olds watched video clips showing an interviewer displaying combinations of supportive and nonsupportive nonverbal behaviors and were asked to rate the interviewer on six attributes (e.g.,…

  3. Touch panel system for control applications

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Crook, K.; Johnson, R.

    1976-12-01

    The use of finger-sensitive touch panels in association with computer-generated displays for control and monitoring of the Stanford linear accelerator is discussed. This control concept has proven to be very effective. The hardware and software aspects of the Touch Panel portion of the control system are described

  4. Inventions on GUI for Touch Sensitive Screens

    OpenAIRE

    Mishra, Umakant

    2014-01-01

    A touch sensitive screen displays the information on the screen and also receives the input by sensing a user's touch on the same screen. This mechanism facilitates system interaction directly through the screen without needing a mouse or keyboard. This method has the advantage to make the system compact by removing keyboard, mouse and similar interactive device. However there are certain difficulties to implement a touch screen interface. The display screens of portable devices are becoming ...

  5. Sencha Touch 2 mobile JavaScript framework

    CERN Document Server

    Clark, John Earl

    2013-01-01

    Full of explained code and enriched with screenshots, this book is the practical way to take your Sencha Touch skills to the next level.If you want to gain practical knowledge for using the Sencha Touch mobile web application framework, and you are familiar with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. It is assumed that you know how to use touchscreens, touch events, and mobile devices such as Apple iOS and Google Android.

  6. The brain’s response to pleasant touch: an EEG investigation of tactile caressing

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harsimrat eSingh

    2014-11-01

    Full Text Available Somatosensation as a proximal sense can have a strong impact on our attitude towards physical objects and other human beings. However, relatively little is known about how hedonic valence of touch is processed at the cortical level. Here we investigated the electrophysiological correlates of affective tactile sensation during caressing of the right forearm with pleasant and unpleasant textile fabrics. We show dissociation between more physically driven differential brain responses to the different fabrics in early somatosensory cortex – the well-known mu-suppression (10-20 Hz - and a beta-band response (25-30 Hz in presumably higher-order somatosensory areas in the right-hemisphere that correlated well with the subjective valence of tactile caressing. Importantly, when using single trial classification techniques, beta-power significantly distinguished between pleasant and unpleasant stimulation on a single trial basis with high accuracy. Our results therefore suggest a dissociation of the sensory and affective aspects of touch in the somatosensory system and may provide features that may be used for single trial decoding of affective mental states from simple electroencephalographic measurements.

  7. Ethical Ideologies: Do They Affect Shopping Behaviors and Perceptions of Morality?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cho, Hyeon; Yoo, Jeong-Ju; Johnson, Kim K. P.

    2005-01-01

    Counterfeiting is a serious problem facing several industries, including the medical, agricultural, and apparel industries (Bloch, Bush, & Campbell, 1993). The authors investigated whether ethical viewpoints affect perceptions of the morality of particular shopping behaviors, attitudes toward counterfeit products, and intentions to purchase such…

  8. Vicarious Social Touch Biases Gazing at Faces and Facial Emotions.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Schirmer, Annett; Ng, Tabitha; Ebstein, Richard P

    2018-02-01

    Research has suggested that interpersonal touch promotes social processing and other-concern, and that women may respond to it more sensitively than men. In this study, we asked whether this phenomenon would extend to third-party observers who experience touch vicariously. In an eye-tracking experiment, participants (N = 64, 32 men and 32 women) viewed prime and target images with the intention of remembering them. Primes comprised line drawings of dyadic interactions with and without touch. Targets comprised two faces shown side-by-side, with one being neutral and the other being happy or sad. Analysis of prime fixations revealed that faces in touch interactions attracted longer gazing than faces in no-touch interactions. In addition, touch enhanced gazing at the area of touch in women but not men. Analysis of target fixations revealed that touch priming increased looking at both faces immediately after target onset, and subsequently, at the emotional face in the pair. Sex differences in target processing were nonsignificant. Together, the present results imply that vicarious touch biases visual attention to faces and promotes emotion sensitivity. In addition, they suggest that, compared with men, women are more aware of tactile exchanges in their environment. As such, vicarious touch appears to share important qualities with actual physical touch. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2018 APA, all rights reserved).

  9. Individual Differences in Beat Perception Affect Gait Responses to Low- and High-Groove Music

    Science.gov (United States)

    Leow, Li-Ann; Parrott, Taylor; Grahn, Jessica A.

    2014-01-01

    Slowed gait in patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) can be improved when patients synchronize footsteps to isochronous metronome cues, but limited retention of such improvements suggest that permanent cueing regimes are needed for long-term improvements. If so, music might make permanent cueing regimes more pleasant, improving adherence; however, music cueing requires patients to synchronize movements to the “beat,” which might be difficult for patients with PD who tend to show weak beat perception. One solution may be to use high-groove music, which has high beat salience that may facilitate synchronization, and affective properties, which may improve motivation to move. As a first step to understanding how beat perception affects gait in complex neurological disorders, we examined how beat perception ability affected gait in neurotypical adults. Synchronization performance and gait parameters were assessed as healthy young adults with strong or weak beat perception synchronized to low-groove music, high-groove music, and metronome cues. High-groove music was predicted to elicit better synchronization than low-groove music, due to its higher beat salience. Two musical tempi, or rates, were used: (1) preferred tempo: beat rate matched to preferred step rate and (2) faster tempo: beat rate adjusted to 22.5% faster than preferred step rate. For both strong and weak beat-perceivers, synchronization performance was best with metronome cues, followed by high-groove music, and worst with low-groove music. In addition, high-groove music elicited longer and faster steps than low-groove music, both at preferred tempo and at faster tempo. Low-groove music was particularly detrimental to gait in weak beat-perceivers, who showed slower and shorter steps compared to uncued walking. The findings show that individual differences in beat perception affect gait when synchronizing footsteps to music, and have implications for using music in gait rehabilitation. PMID:25374521

  10. Individual differences in beat perception affect gait responses to low- and high-groove music.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Li-Ann eLeow

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available Slowed gait in Parkinson’s disease (PD patients can be improved when patients synchronize footsteps to isochronous metronome cues, but limited retention of such improvements suggest that permanent cueing regimes are needed for long-term improvements. If so, music might make permanent cueing regimes more pleasant, improving adherence; however, music cueing requires patients to synchronize movements to the beat, which might be difficult for PD patients who tend to show weak beat perception. One solution may be to use high groove music, which has high beat salience that may facilitate synchronization, and affective properties which may improve motivation to move. As a first step in understanding how beat perception affects gait in complex neurological disorders, we examined how beat perception ability affected gait in neurotypical adults. Synchronization performance and gait parameters were assessed as healthy young adults with strong or weak beat perception synchronized to low groove music, high groove music, and metronome cues. High groove music was predicted to elicit better synchronization than low groove music, due to its higher beat salience. Two musical tempi, or rates, were used: (1 preferred tempo: beat rate matched to preferred step rate and (2 faster tempo: beat rate adjusted to 22.5% faster than preferred step rate. For both strong and weak beat-perceivers, synchronization performance was best with metronome cues, followed by high groove music, and worst with low groove music. In addition, high groove music elicited longer and faster steps than low groove music, both at preferred tempo and at faster tempo. Low groove music was particularly detrimental to gait in weak beat-perceivers, who showed slower and shorter steps compared to uncued walking. The findings show that individual differences in beat perception affect gait when synchronizing footsteps to music, and have implications for using music in gait rehabilitation.

  11. Piezoelectric touch-sensitive flexible hybrid energy harvesting nanoarchitectures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Choi, Dukhyun; Kim, Eok Su; Kim, Tae Sang; Lee, Sang Yoon; Choi, Jae-Young; Kim, Jong Min; Lee, Keun Young; Lee, Kang Hyuck; Kim, Sang-Woo

    2010-01-01

    In this work, we report a flexible hybrid nanoarchitecture that can be utilized as both an energy harvester and a touch sensor on a single platform without any cross-talk problems. Based on the electron transport and piezoelectric properties of a zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructured thin film, a hybrid cell was designed and the total thickness was below 500 nm on a plastic substrate. Piezoelectric touch signals were demonstrated under independent and simultaneous operations with respect to photo-induced charges. Different levels of piezoelectric output signals from different magnitudes of touching pressures suggest new user-interface functions from our hybrid cell. From a signal controller, the decoupled performance of a hybrid cell as an energy harvester and a touch sensor was confirmed. Our hybrid approach does not require additional assembly processes for such multiplex systems of an energy harvester and a touch sensor since we utilize the coupled material properties of ZnO and output signal processing. Furthermore, the hybrid cell can provide a multi-type energy harvester by both solar and mechanical touching energies.

  12. 'Kiss, cuddle, squeeze': the experiences and meaning of touch among parents of children with autism attending a Touch Therapy Programme.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cullen, Lesley; Barlow, Julie

    2002-09-01

    The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences and meaning of touch between parents and children with autism before and after attending a Touch Therapy Programme. The sample comprised 12 parents (1 father and 11 mothers) of children (1 female and 11 male) with autism. Parents were interviewed before and immediately after the 8-week programme. Pre-programme results suggested that children were controlling the experience of touch. Parents felt 'hurt' in response to the 'aloof nature of autism, and natural parenting instincts (e.g. spontaneous cuddles) were restricted. Post-programme results suggested that children appeared to tolerate touch. Parents reported that routine tasks (e.g. dressing) were accomplished more easily and that children appeared generally more relaxed. Parents reported feeling 'closer' to their children and felt that the touch therapy had opened a communication channel between themselves and their children.

  13. Physiological Effects of Touching Wood

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Harumi Ikei

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available This study aimed to clarify the physiological effects of touching wood with the palm, in comparison with touching other materials on brain activity and autonomic nervous activity. Eighteen female university students (mean age, 21.7  ±  1.6 years participated in the study. As an indicator of brain activity, oxyhemoglobin (oxy-Hb concentrations were measured in the left/right prefrontal cortex using near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy. Heart rate variability (HRV was used as an indicator of autonomic nervous activity. The high-frequency (HF component of HRV, which reflected parasympathetic nervous activity, and the low-frequency (LF/HF ratio, which reflected sympathetic nervous activity, were measured. Plates of uncoated white oak, marble, tile, and stainless steel were used as tactile stimuli. After sitting at rest with their eyes closed, participants touched the materials for 90 s. As a result, tactile stimulation with white oak significantly (1 decreased the oxy-Hb concentration in the left/right prefrontal cortex relative to marble, tile, and stainless steel and (2 increased ln(HF-reflected parasympathetic nervous activity relative to marble and stainless steel. In conclusion, our study revealed that touching wood with the palm calms prefrontal cortex activity and induces parasympathetic nervous activity more than other materials, thereby inducing physiological relaxation.

  14. Usability of Web Browsers for Multi-touch Platforms

    OpenAIRE

    Khan, Hasan Zaryab

    2010-01-01

    Multi-touch interface is an improvement within the existing touch screen technology, which allows the user to operate the electronic visual display with finger gestures. This work examines how good current web browsers are positioned to avail of the next generation HCI, currently dubbed Natural User Interfaces which are largely multi-touch interfaces at this point in time.

  15. Mechanical touch responses of Arabidopsis TCH1-3 mutant roots on inclined hard-agar surface

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zha, Guodong; Wang, Bochu; Liu, Junyu; Yan, Jie; Zhu, Liqing; Yang, Xingyan

    2016-01-01

    The gravity-induced mechanical touch stimulus can affect plant root architecture. Mechanical touch responses of plant roots are an important aspect of plant root growth and development. Previous studies have reported that Arabidopsis TCH1-3 genes are involved in mechano-related events, how-ever, the physiological functions of TCH1-3 genes in Arabidopsis root mechanoresponses remain unclear. In the present study, we applied an inclined hard agar plate method to produce mechanical touch stimulus, and provided evidence that altered mechanical environment could influence root growth. Furthermore, tch1-3 Arabidopsis mutants were investigated on inclined agar surfaces to explore the functions of TCH1-3 genes on Arabidopsis root mechanoresponses. The results showed that two tch2 mutants, cml24-2 and cml24-4, exhibited significantly reduced root length, biased skewing, and decreased density of lateral root. In addition, primary root length and density of lateral root of tch3 (cml12-2) was significantly decreased on inclined agar surfaces. This study indicates that the tch2 and tch3 mutants are hypersensitive to mechanical touch stimulus, and TCH2 (CML24-2 and CML24-4) and TCH3 (CML12-2) genes may participate in the mechanical touch response of Arabidopsis roots.

  16. The design of light pipe with microstructures for touch screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Yang, Bo; Lu, Kan; Liu, Pengfei; Wei, Xiaona

    2010-11-01

    Touch screen has a very wide range of applications. Most of them are used in public information inquiries, for instance, service inquiries in telecommunication bureau, tax bureau, bank system, electric department, etc...Touch screen can also be used for entertainment and virtual reality applications too. Traditionally, touch screen was composed of pairs of infrared LED and correspondent receivers which were all installed in the screen frame. Arrays of LED were set in the adjacent sides of the frame of an infrared touch screen while arrays of the infrared receivers were fixed in each opposite side, so that the infrared detecting network was formed. While the infrared touch screen has some technical limitations nowadays such as the low resolution, limitations of touching methods and fault response due to environmental disturbances. The plastic material has a relatively high absorption rate for infrared light, which greatly limits the size of the touch screen. Our design uses laser diode as source and change the traditional inner structure of touch screen by using a light pipe with microstructures. The geometric parameters of the light pipe and the microstructures were obtained through equation solving. Simulation results prove that the design method for touch screen proposed in this paper could achieve high resolution and large size of touch screen.

  17. The Benefits of Single-Touch Screens in Intersubjective Meaning Making

    OpenAIRE

    Davidsen, Jacob; Christiansen, Ellen Tove

    2013-01-01

    What are the benefits of single-touch screens? The paper presents findings of onevideo extract from ten months of observation of single-touch screen interaction among 8-9 year-old children. Recent studies of collaborative learning mediated by digital touch screens and tabletops emphasize the possibilities for equal levels of verbal and physical participation.Additionally, these studies suggest that multi-touch technologies offer more task-oriented activities compared to single-touch screen in...

  18. Factors Affecting the Perception of Importance and Practice of Patient Safety Management among Hospital Employees in Korea.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kim, In-Sook; Park, MiJeong; Park, Mi-Young; Yoo, Hana; Choi, Jihea

    2013-03-01

    The study was undertaken to identify factors affecting perception of the importance and practice of patient safety management (PSM) among hospital employees in Korea. This study was conducted using a descriptive design and a self-report questionnaire. Two hundred and eighty employees were recruited from three hospitals using a convenience sampling method. Measures were perception of the importance, practice, and characteristics of PSM. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics including t test, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, and multiple regression. Factors affecting perception of the importance of PSM were whether hospital employees were in contact with patients while on duty, weekly working hours, education on PSM, and perceived adequacy of PSM system construction. Factors affecting the practice of PSM were perceived adequacy of work load, perceived adequacy of PSM system construction and perception of its importance. The findings of this study indicate a need for developing strategies to improve perception of the importance and practice of PSM among all hospital employees, and provide a reference for future experimental studies. Copyright © 2013. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  19. Effect of Parkinson Disease on Emotion Perception Using the Persian Affective Voices Test.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Saffarian, Arezoo; Shavaki, Yunes Amiri; Shahidi, Gholam Ali; Jafari, Zahra

    2018-05-04

    Emotion perception plays a major role in proper communication with people in different social interactions. Nonverbal affect bursts can be used to evaluate vocal emotion perception. The present study was a preliminary step to establishing the psychometric properties of the Persian version of the Montreal Affective Voices (MAV) test, as well as to investigate the effect of Parkinson disease (PD) on vocal emotion perception. The short, emotional sound made by pronouncing the vowel "a" in Persian was recorded by 22 actors and actresses to develop the Persian version of the MAV, the Persian Affective Voices (PAV), for emotions of happiness, sadness, pleasure, pain, anger, disgust, fear, surprise, and neutrality. The results of the recordings of five of the actresses and five of the actors who obtained the highest score were used to generate the test. For convergent validity assessment, the correlation between the PAV and a speech prosody comprehension test was examined using a gender- and age-matched control group. To investigate the effect of the PD on emotion perception, the PAV test was performed on 28 patients with mild PD between ages 50 and 70 years. The PAV showed a high internal consistency (Cronbach's α = 0.80). A significant positive correlation was observed between the PAV and the speech prosody comprehension test. The test-retest reliability also showed the high repeatability of the PAV (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.815, P ≤ 0.001). A significant difference was observed between the patients with PD and the controls in all subtests. The PAV test is a useful psychometric tool for examining vocal emotion perception that can be used in both behavioral and neuroimaging studies. Copyright © 2018 The Voice Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Caring touch--patients' experiences in an anthroposophic clinical context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ozolins, Lise-Lotte; Hörberg, Ulrica; Dahlberg, Karin

    2015-12-01

    This study describes the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspective in an anthroposophic clinical context where caring touch is often used to promote health and alleviate suffering. The aim of the study was to explore and phenomenologically describe the phenomenon of caring touch from the patients' perspectives. The study has been carried out with a Reflective Lifeworld Research approach in order to understand and describe human existential phenomena. Ten female patients were interviewed in an anthroposophic clinic in Sweden. The findings show how caring touch has multifaceted meanings and makes the patients' feel present and anchored in a meaningful context. The patients' feel that they are seen, accepted and confirmed. Furthermore, touch creates a caring space where the patients become receptive for care and has the power to alleviate the patients' suffering, as well as to frighten and cause or worsen the suffering. In order to take advantage of the caring potential, the patient needs to be invited to a respectful and sensitive form of touch. An interpersonal flexible space is necessary where the touch can be effective, and where a dynamic interplay can develop. In conclusion, caring touch is an opportunity for carers to support well-being and health. The carers need to approach their patients in both a sensitive and reflective way. A caring science perspective can serve as a help to further understand touch as a unique caring act. © 2015 Nordic College of Caring Science.

  1. Grab and Touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Pedersen, Esben Warming

    , by supporting multi-touch control, and by allowing efficient interaction with multiple tangibles. These benefits were evaluated in a study that shows that rotation-based interactions were more efficient with Tangible Bots. A second study demonstrated usefulness by observing how electronic musicians use Tangible......Tangible user interfaces seek to make computing natural and ubiquitous by coupling digital information with physical objects. The thesis contributes to this field by presenting empirical research on tangible computing and touch interaction. In the area of tangible computing, the thesis first...... and the results suggest that mixiTUI improved both the audience’s and the musician’s experience. To enhance the interaction with tangible user interfaces,we developed Tangible Bots, a set of active, motorized tangibles. Tangible Bots assist users by providing haptic feedback, by correcting interaction errors...

  2. Homo Tangens, or Man Touching and Tangible

    OpenAIRE

    J Mizinska

    2011-01-01

    The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept sense of touch, which is considered in all its aspects and dimensions. The author's aim is to determine what is touch in terms of philosophy, what types it has and what traditional functions (i.e. prior to the emergence of virtual reality) each of these functions performed. The conducted research allows the author to make a conclusion about the importance of perceiving the role and significance of man as a homo tangens - man touching and t...

  3. Mirror Neurons and Mirror-Touch Synesthesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Linkovski, Omer; Katzin, Naama; Salti, Moti

    2016-05-30

    Since mirror neurons were introduced to the neuroscientific community more than 20 years ago, they have become an elegant and intuitive account for different cognitive mechanisms (e.g., empathy, goal understanding) and conditions (e.g., autism spectrum disorders). Recently, mirror neurons were suggested to be the mechanism underlying a specific type of synesthesia. Mirror-touch synesthesia is a phenomenon in which individuals experience somatosensory sensations when seeing someone else being touched. Appealing as it is, careful delineation is required when applying this mechanism. Using the mirror-touch synesthesia case, we put forward theoretical and methodological issues that should be addressed before relying on the mirror-neurons account. © The Author(s) 2016.

  4. The Will to Touch: David Copperfield’s Hand

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Pamela K. Gilbert

    2014-10-01

    Full Text Available In the nineteenth century, touch was considered to be a more privileged sense than has been generally noted, and the hand was pre-eminently the site of active touching. The hand comes newly to rival the face in descriptive significance in mid-nineteenth-century fiction, and reflects contemporary notions of the role of touch in the exercise of the will and the development of the sensorium. This article explores medical and philosophical understandings of embodied touch within the period, and examines why the hand emerged as a focal point for scientific, poetic, and popular discussion. Such scientists as Charles Bell, Herbert Spencer, and Alexander Bain tend to work within two paradigms: the hand as a site of sensory input that forms a conduit between inner and outer worlds, and the hand as an instrument of the will. The article explores Dickens's use of these ideas about touch and development in his 1850 'Bildungsroman', 'David Copperfield'. David struggles to establish his proper status as a middle-class male, in part by learning to use his hands to impose his own will and to resist the dominance of inappropriate others through touch.

  5. Sound frequency affects speech emotion perception: Results from congenital amusia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sydney eLolli

    2015-09-01

    Full Text Available Congenital amusics, or tone-deaf individuals, show difficulty in perceiving and producing small pitch differences. While amusia has marked effects on music perception, its impact on speech perception is less clear. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in pitch perception affect judgment of emotion in speech, by applying band-pass filters to spoken statements of emotional speech. A norming study was first conducted on Mechanical Turk to ensure that the intended emotions from the Macquarie Battery for Evaluation of Prosody (MBEP were reliably identifiable by US English speakers. The most reliably identified emotional speech samples were used in in Experiment 1, in which subjects performed a psychophysical pitch discrimination task, and an emotion identification task under band-pass and unfiltered speech conditions. Results showed a significant correlation between pitch discrimination threshold and emotion identification accuracy for band-pass filtered speech, with amusics (defined here as those with a pitch discrimination threshold > 16 Hz performing worse than controls. This relationship with pitch discrimination was not seen in unfiltered speech conditions. Given the dissociation between band-pass filtered and unfiltered speech conditions, we inferred that amusics may be compensating for poorer pitch perception by using speech cues that are filtered out in this manipulation.

  6. Homo Tangens, or Man Touching and Tangible

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    J Mizinska

    2011-09-01

    Full Text Available The article is devoted to the analysis of the concept sense of touch, which is considered in all its aspects and dimensions. The author's aim is to determine what is touch in terms of philosophy, what types it has and what traditional functions (i.e. prior to the emergence of virtual reality each of these functions performed. The conducted research allows the author to make a conclusion about the importance of perceiving the role and significance of man as a homo tangens - man touching and tangible.

  7. Focal Length Affects Depicted Shape and Perception of Facial Images.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vít Třebický

    Full Text Available Static photographs are currently the most often employed stimuli in research on social perception. The method of photograph acquisition might affect the depicted subject's facial appearance and thus also the impression of such stimuli. An important factor influencing the resulting photograph is focal length, as different focal lengths produce various levels of image distortion. Here we tested whether different focal lengths (50, 85, 105 mm affect depicted shape and perception of female and male faces. We collected three portrait photographs of 45 (22 females, 23 males participants under standardized conditions and camera setting varying only in the focal length. Subsequently, the three photographs from each individual were shown on screen in a randomized order using a 3-alternative forced-choice paradigm. The images were judged for attractiveness, dominance, and femininity/masculinity by 369 raters (193 females, 176 males. Facial width-to-height ratio (fWHR was measured from each photograph and overall facial shape was analysed employing geometric morphometric methods (GMM. Our results showed that photographs taken with 50 mm focal length were rated as significantly less feminine/masculine, attractive, and dominant compared to the images taken with longer focal lengths. Further, shorter focal lengths produced faces with smaller fWHR. Subsequent GMM revealed focal length significantly affected overall facial shape of the photographed subjects. Thus methodology of photograph acquisition, focal length in this case, can significantly affect results of studies using photographic stimuli perhaps due to different levels of perspective distortion that influence shapes and proportions of morphological traits.

  8. 'Am I moving?' An illusion of agency and ownership in mirror-touch synaesthesia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cioffi, Maria Cristina; Banissy, Michael J; Moore, James W

    2016-01-01

    Mirror-touch synaesthesia (MTS) is a condition that leads people to experience tactile sensations on their own body when watching at someone else being touched. Recent accounts postulate that MTS is linked with atypical self-other representations. It has been suggested that this may be associated with disturbances in two main components of self-awareness: sense of agency and sense of ownership. This study investigates changes in sense of agency and sense of ownership in MTS. Using a paradigm that deliberately blurs the boundaries between the self and the other, we not only found that MTS affects sense of agency and sense of ownership, but that these aspects of self-awareness are affected differently. We suggest that alterations in sense of agency can be linked to more profound disturbances in sense of ownership in MTS, and that MTS may be characterised by underlying difficulties in self-other processing. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

  9. Archaeologies of touch interfacing with haptics from electricity to computing

    CERN Document Server

    Parisi, David

    2018-01-01

    David Parisi offers the first full history of new computing technologies known as haptic interfaces--which use electricity, vibration, and force feedback to stimulate the sense of touch--showing how the efforts of scientists and engineers over the past 300 years have gradually remade and redefined our sense of touch. Archaeologies of Touch offers a timely and provocative engagement with the long history of touch technology that helps us confront and question the power relations underpinning the project of giving touch its own set of technical media.

  10. Touch Surgery™

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    Arun Kumar Agnihotri

    Available for Android and iOS. With regard to the teaching of undergraduate surgery, there is a lot of ... Until now. We now have Touch Surgery™, an app available for the iOS and Android platforms. This is a ... authentication of professional standing which is limited for users in most countries. The use of the app, however, for ...

  11. [Perception of parental attitudes and the level of female adolescents' self-esteem affected with anorexia nervosa].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Witkowska, Bogumiła

    2013-01-01

    The article's aim is to look for correlation between a parent - child relationship and the level of self-esteem in the perception of girls affected with anorexia nervosa (who meet the criteria of DSM-IV-TR). The differences in the perception of parental attitudes (of mothers and fathers) and self-esteem of girls suffering from anorexia nervosa and their healthy peers were also analyzed. Two equally numbered groups of girls: the clinical group (30 persons affected with anorexia nervosa) and control group (30 healthy girls) in the 15-20 age range were examined. Two test were applied: Parent-Child Relations Questionnaire (PCR) A. Roe and M. Siegelman in the authorized translation by W. S. Kowalski to investigate characteristic behavior of parents of small children as perceived by youth or adults and a Questionnaire "What are you like?" by P. Sears in adaptation of J. Kostrzewski, which is used to study self-esteem. The results confirmed the expected relationship between perception of parental attitudes and the level of self-esteem of girls affected with anorexia nervosa. Parental attitudes characterized by love and protection promote higher self-esteem of their daughters and the experience of higher demands and rejection by both parents lowers their self-esteem. The comparison of average attitudes of mothers and fathers in perception of their daughters diagnosed with anorexia nervosa did not confirm significant statistical differences. Comparison of maternal attitudes in the perception of their daughters from the group affected by anorexia and the healthy group revealed significant differences in full range of attitudes. The differences in perception of the attitudes of their fathers were statistically substantial regarding the attitudes concerning love and rejection. Self-esteem of persons treated for anorexia is significantly lower than of their healthy peers.

  12. Human Technology and Human Affects

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fausing, Bent

    2009-01-01

    Human Technology and Human Affects  This year Samsung introduced a mobile phone with "Soul". It was made with a human touch and included itself a magical touch. Which function does technology and affects get in everyday aesthetics like this, its images and interactions included this presentation...... will ask and try to answer. The mobile phone and its devices are depicted as being able to make a unique human presence, interaction, and affect. The medium, the technology is a necessary helper to get towards this very special and lost humanity. Without the technology, no special humanity - soul....... The paper will investigate how technology, humanity, affects, and synaesthesia are presented and combined with examples from everyday aesthetics, e.g. early computer tv-commercial, net-commercial for mobile phones. Technology and affects point, is the conclusion, towards a forgotten pre-human and not he...

  13. Touch, and you will gaze

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Bruun, Anders; Hahn, Claudia; Voigt, Benjamin

    2013-01-01

    This study extends previous research by exploring the quality of the interaction experienced by a group of elderly participants interacting with a healthcare portal when applying a touch screen remote control. This is compared to a standard remote control with physical buttons.......This study extends previous research by exploring the quality of the interaction experienced by a group of elderly participants interacting with a healthcare portal when applying a touch screen remote control. This is compared to a standard remote control with physical buttons....

  14. Explaining away the body: experiences of supernaturally caused touch and touch on non-hand objects within the rubber hand illusion.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Jakob Hohwy

    2010-02-01

    Full Text Available In rubber hand illusions and full body illusions, touch sensations are projected to non-body objects such as rubber hands, dolls or virtual bodies. The robustness, limits and further perceptual consequences of such illusions are not yet fully explored or understood. A number of experiments are reported that test the limits of a variant of the rubber hand illusion.A variant of the rubber hand illusion is explored, in which the real and foreign hands are aligned in personal space. The presence of the illusion is ascertained with participants' scores and temperature changes of the real arm. This generates a basic illusion of touch projected to a foreign arm. Participants are presented with further, unusual visuotactile stimuli subsequent to onset of the basic illusion. Such further visuotactile stimulation is found to generate very unusual experiences of supernatural touch and touch on a non-hand object. The finding of touch on a non-hand object conflicts with prior findings, and to resolve this conflict a further hypothesis is successfully tested: that without prior onset of the basic illusion this unusual experience does not occur.A rubber hand illusion is found that can arise when the real and the foreign arm are aligned in personal space. This illusion persists through periods of no tactile stimulation and is strong enough to allow very unusual experiences of touch felt on a cardboard box and experiences of touch produced at a distance, as if by supernatural causation. These findings suggest that one's visual body image is explained away during experience of the illusion and they may be of further importance to understanding the role of experience in delusion formation. The findings of touch on non-hand objects may help reconcile conflicting results in this area of research. In addition, new evidence is provided that relates to the recently discovered psychologically induced temperature changes that occur during the illusion.

  15. An Algorithm of Calculating the Position in a Self-Capacitance Touch Screen

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhang, Huan; Peng, Haiyan; Qian, Xiaoli; Ren, Can; Wang, Wentao; Li, Jianjun

    Touch screens have been widely used in many kinds of electronic products. For many capacitive touch sensing devices, they always suffer from a variety of electronic signal noises. So when a finger touches the screen, it is difficult to calculate the exact touch position on the screen. We proposed an algorithm of calculating the position in a self-capacitance touch screen to alleviate noise interference. We determined the touch region by calculating the differences between current data and reference data in every channel. In the touch region we divided it into different ranges to calculate the touch point. The simulation results show that the algorithm that we proposed can alleviate noise interference effectively and obtain the exact positioning on touch screen accurately.

  16. Experiences with Interactive Multi-touch Tables

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fikkert, Wim; Hakvoort, Michiel; van der Vet, Paul; Nijholt, Anton

    Interactive multi-touch tables can be a powerful means of communication for collaborative work as well as an engaging environment for competition. Through enticing gameplay we have evaluated user experience on competitive gameplay, collaborative work and musical expression. In addition, we report on our extensive experiences with two types of interactive multi-touch tables and we introduce a software framework that abstracts from their technical differences.

  17. The Benefits of Single-Touch Screens in Intersubjective Meaning Making

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davidsen, Jacob; Christiansen, Ellen Tove

    2013-01-01

    the possibilities for equal levels of verbal and physical participation.Additionally, these studies suggest that multi-touch technologies offer more task-oriented activities compared to single-touch screen interaction, in which discussion about turn-taking is more prevalent from the outset. In contrast, applying......What are the benefits of single-touch screens? The paper presents findings of one video extract from ten months of observation of single-touch screen interaction among 8-9 year-old children. Recent studies of collaborative learning mediated by digital touch screens and tabletops emphasize...... the Embodied Interaction Analysis, we find that the constraints of single-touch screens offer support for intersubjective meaning making in their capacity of constraining the interaction. This “grain of sand” shows how children display and construct a shared work space through embodied interaction...

  18. How mechanical context and feedback jointly determine the use of mechanical variables in length perception by dynamic touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Menger, Rudmer; Withagen, Rob

    Earlier studies have revealed that both mechanical context and feedback determine what mechanical invariant is used to perceive length by dynamic touch. In the present article, the authors examined how these two factors jointly constrain the informational variable that is relied upon. Participants

  19. How mechanical context and feedback jointly determine the use of mechanical variables in length perception by dynamic touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Menger, Rudmer; Withagen, Rob

    2009-01-01

    Earlier studies have revealed that both mechanical context and feedback determine what mechanical invariant is used to perceive length by dynamic touch. In the present article, the authors examined how these two factors jointly constrain the informational variable that is relied upon. Participants

  20. Taking Your iPod touch to the Max

    CERN Document Server

    Sadun, Erica

    2010-01-01

    Unleash your iPhone and take it to the limit using secret tips and techniques from gadget hacker Erica Sadun. Fast and fun to read, Taking Your iPod touch 4 to the Max is fully updated to show you how get the most out of Apple's new OS 4. You'll find all the best undocumented tricks as well as the most efficient and enjoyable introduction to the iPhone available. Starting with an introduction to iPod touch 4 basics, you'll quickly move on to discover the iPod touch's hidden potential, like how to connect to a TV, get contract-free VOIP, and hack OS 4 so it will run apps on your iPod touch. Fro

  1. Technology that Touches Lives: Teleconsultation to Benefit Persons with Upper Limb Loss

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Lynsay R. Whelan

    2011-12-01

    Full Text Available While over 1.5 million individuals are living with limb loss in the United States (Ziegler-Graham et al., 2008, only 10% of these individuals have a loss that affects an upper limb. Coincident with the relatively low incidence of upper limb loss, is a shortage of the community-based prosthetic rehabilitation experts that can help prosthetic users to more fully integrate their devices into their daily routines. This article describes how expert prosthetists and occupational therapists at Touch Bionics, a manufacturer of advanced upper limb prosthetic devices, employ Voice over the Internet Protocol (VoIP videoconferencing software telehealth technologies to engage in remote consultation with users of prosthetic devices and/or their local practitioners. The Touch Bionics staff provide follow-up expertise to local prosthetists, occupational therapists, and other health professionals. Contrasted with prior telephone-based consultations, the video-enabled approach provides enhanced capabilities to benefit persons with upper limb loss.  Currently, the opportunities for Touch Bionics occupational therapists to fully engage in patient-based services delivered through telehealth technologies are significantly reduced by their need to obtain and maintain professional licenses in multiple states.

  2. Touch design and narrative interpretation

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Zhao, Sumin; Unsworth, Len

    2016-01-01

    and the Bottle in depth, and illustrate how interactive design elements help to create an interpretative possibility of the story. We suggest that a better understanding of interactive touch design would promote more effective adult-child interactions around mobile applications....... of technology, but also a resource for meaning making. We distinguish two basic types of interactivity—intra-text and extra-text—incorporated in the touch design, and explore the different functions they perform in a broad range of picture book apps. In particular, we look at the app version of The Heart...

  3. The Power of Touch: Nonverbal Communication within Married Dyads

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Joann C. Seeman; Vogel, David L.; Madon, Stephanie; Edwards, Sarah R.

    2011-01-01

    Researchers have suggested that one function of touch in mixed-sex interactions is to exert influence over another person. Yet theories offer different explanations as to when women and men will use touch as an influence strategy. The gender politics hypothesis proposes that men touch more as a way to maintain inequalities present in society. In…

  4. Patterns of Touching between Preschool Children and Their Parents.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fialkov, Claire; And Others

    Twenty 2- to 5-year-old children were observed during separate play with their mothers and fathers in an attempt to more clearly define patterns of touching. Specific purposes of the study were: (1) to identify the different functions of touch; (2) to determine the frequency of occurrence and duration of different types of touches; (3) to describe…

  5. AGATE: Autonomous Go and Touch Exploration, Phase I

    Data.gov (United States)

    National Aeronautics and Space Administration — The innovation (AGATE, for Autonomous Go And Touch Exploration) will enable single-sol "go and touch" instrument placement from distances of up to five meters for...

  6. Cooling the thermal grill illusion through self-touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kammers, Marjolein P M; de Vignemont, Frédérique; Haggard, Patrick

    2010-10-26

    Acute peripheral pain is reduced by multisensory interactions at the spinal level [1]. Central pain is reduced by reorganization of cortical body representations [2, 3]. We show here that acute pain can also be reduced by multisensory integration through self-touch, which provides proprioceptive, thermal, and tactile input forming a coherent body representation [4, 5]. We combined self-touch with the thermal grill illusion (TGI) [6]. In the traditional TGI, participants press their fingers on two warm objects surrounding one cool object. The warm surround unmasks pain pathways, which paradoxically causes the cool object to feel painfully hot. Here, we warmed the index and ring fingers of each hand while cooling the middle fingers. Immediately after, these three fingers of the right hand were touched against the same three fingers on the left hand. This self-touch caused a dramatic 64% reduction in perceived heat. We show that this paradoxical release from paradoxical heat cannot be explained by low-level touch-temperature interactions alone. To reduce pain, we often clutch a painful hand with the other hand. We show here that self-touch not only gates pain signals reaching the brain [7-9] but also, via multisensory integration, increases coherence of cognitive body representations to which pain afferents project [10]. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  7. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suvilehto, Juulia T; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I M; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-11-10

    Nonhuman primates use social touch for maintenance and reinforcement of social structures, yet the role of social touch in human bonding in different reproductive, affiliative, and kinship-based relationships remains unresolved. Here we reveal quantified, relationship-specific maps of bodily regions where social touch is allowed in a large cross-cultural dataset (N = 1,368 from Finland, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom). Participants were shown front and back silhouettes of human bodies with a word denoting one member of their social network. They were asked to color, on separate trials, the bodily regions where each individual in their social network would be allowed to touch them. Across all tested cultures, the total bodily area where touching was allowed was linearly dependent (mean r(2) = 0.54) on the emotional bond with the toucher, but independent of when that person was last encountered. Close acquaintances and family members were touched for more reasons than less familiar individuals. The bodily area others are allowed to touch thus represented, in a parametric fashion, the strength of the relationship-specific emotional bond. We propose that the spatial patterns of human social touch reflect an important mechanism supporting the maintenance of social bonds.

  8. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans

    Science.gov (United States)

    Suvilehto, Juulia T.; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I. M.; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-01-01

    Nonhuman primates use social touch for maintenance and reinforcement of social structures, yet the role of social touch in human bonding in different reproductive, affiliative, and kinship-based relationships remains unresolved. Here we reveal quantified, relationship-specific maps of bodily regions where social touch is allowed in a large cross-cultural dataset (N = 1,368 from Finland, France, Italy, Russia, and the United Kingdom). Participants were shown front and back silhouettes of human bodies with a word denoting one member of their social network. They were asked to color, on separate trials, the bodily regions where each individual in their social network would be allowed to touch them. Across all tested cultures, the total bodily area where touching was allowed was linearly dependent (mean r2 = 0.54) on the emotional bond with the toucher, but independent of when that person was last encountered. Close acquaintances and family members were touched for more reasons than less familiar individuals. The bodily area others are allowed to touch thus represented, in a parametric fashion, the strength of the relationship-specific emotional bond. We propose that the spatial patterns of human social touch reflect an important mechanism supporting the maintenance of social bonds. PMID:26504228

  9. Laterality of foetal self-touch in relation to maternal stress.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Reissland, Nadja; Aydin, Ezra; Francis, Brian; Exley, Kendra

    2015-01-01

    This longitudinal observational study investigated whether foetuses change their hand preference with gestational age, and also examined the effects of maternal stress on lateralized foetal self-touch. Following ethical approval, fifteen healthy foetuses (eight girls and seven boys) were scanned four times from 24 to 36 weeks gestation. Self-touch behaviours which resulted in a touch of the foetal face/head were coded in 60 scans for 10 min and analysed in terms of frequency of the foetuses using left and right hands to touch their face. The joint effects of foetal age, stress and sex on laterality were assessed. We modelled the proportion of right self-touches for each foetal scan using a generalized linear mixed model, taking account of the repeated measures design. There was substantial variability in hand preference between foetuses. However, there was no significant increase in the proportion of right-handed touches with foetal age. No sex differences in handedness were identified. However, maternally reported stress level was significantly positively related to foetal left-handed self-touches (odds ratio 0.915; p < .0001). This longitudinal study provides important new insights into the effect of recent maternal stress on foetal predominant hand use during self-touch.

  10. Galaxy Tab Covers Samsung TouchWiz Interface

    CERN Document Server

    Gralla, Preston

    2011-01-01

    Galaxy Tab lets you work, play, read, and connect on the go, but mastering its TouchWiz interface and finding the best apps can be tricky-unless you have this Missing Manual. Gadget whiz Preston Gralla provides crystal-clear explanations and step-by-step instructions to get you up to speed quickly, whether you have the 3G/4G or Wi-Fi version of this amazing device. The important stuff you need to know: Design your experience. Add interactive widgets and mini-apps to your screen with TouchWiz.Satisfy your appetite. Download thousands of games and apps from the Android Market.Keep in touch. Ch

  11. Reactions, accuracy and response complexity of numerical typing on touch screens.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lin, Cheng-Jhe; Wu, Changxu

    2013-01-01

    Touch screens are popular nowadays as seen on public kiosks, industrial control panels and personal mobile devices. Numerical typing is one frequent task performed on touch screens, but this task on touch screen is subject to human errors and slow responses. This study aims to find innate differences of touch screens from standard physical keypads in the context of numerical typing by eliminating confounding issues. Effects of precise visual feedback and urgency of numerical typing were also investigated. The results showed that touch screens were as accurate as physical keyboards, but reactions were indeed executed slowly on touch screens as signified by both pre-motor reaction time and reaction time. Provision of precise visual feedback caused more errors, and the interaction between devices and urgency was not found on reaction time. To improve usability of touch screens, designers should focus more on reducing response complexity and be cautious about the use of visual feedback. The study revealed that slower responses on touch screens involved more complex human cognition to formulate motor responses. Attention should be given to designing precise visual feedback appropriately so that distractions or visual resource competitions can be avoided to improve human performance on touch screens.

  12. Touch Attenuates Infants' Physiological Reactivity to Stress

    Science.gov (United States)

    Feldman, Ruth; Singer, Magi; Zagoory, Orna

    2010-01-01

    Animal studies demonstrate that maternal touch and contact regulate infant stress, and handling during periods of maternal deprivation attenuates the stress response. To measure the effects of touch on infant stress reactivity during simulated maternal deprivation, 53 dyads were tested in two paradigms: still-face (SF) and still-face with maternal…

  13. Electrotactile Feedback for Handheld Devices with Touch Screen and Simulation of Roughness.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Altinsoy, M E; Merchel, S

    2012-01-01

    We present a novel electrotactile display that can be integrated into current handheld devices with touch screens. In this display, tactile information is presented to the fingertip of the user by transmitting small currents through electrodes. Experiments were conducted to investigate the perception of simulated textures using this electrotactile display technique. One fundamental feature of texture, which is the focus of this study, is roughness. The aim of the first experiment was to investigate the relationship between electrotactile stimulation parameters such as current and pulse frequency and the perception of roughness. An increase in the current magnitude resulted in an increase in perceived roughness. The aim of the second experiment was to investigate parameter combinations of electrotactile stimuli can be used to simulate textures. Subjects adjusted the intensity and frequency of the current stimuli until the simulated textures were perceived as being equal to reference textures such as sandpapers of varying grit numbers and grooved woods with varying groove widths. Subjects tended to find an electrotactile stimulus with a high current magnitude and a low pulse frequency more suitable to represent rough surfaces. They tended to find just-perceptible current magnitudes suitable for very smooth surfaces and did not show a preference for any frequency.

  14. Bidimensional illustration touches in children books: consideration about their construction in the context of the education of children with visual impairments

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriano Henrique Nuernberg

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available The politics diffusion of the inclusive education last decade was positive for the several initiatives that wanted to promote the access to the knowledge from visual deficiency people. Many of these initiatives, however, have their theories from crooked notions about the ways of access and concepts elaborated of blind people, mainly when it deals with the congenital blindness. The goal of this article is to discuss the construction of bidimensional illustration touches as a way of guarantee the access of the visual content from children books. Based in the historic-cultural psychology from Vigotski, differences are pointed between the ways of visual and touch perception, taking the language as a way of blindness social compensation. Finding conceptual problems of the construction of these bidimensional illustration touches, it is a hope to collaborate for the improvement of the quality of the material produced in the context of the inclusive education, having in view the attention to the different topics of the psychical human being in the presence of the congenital blindness.

  15. TOUCHING MOMENTS: DESIRE MODULATES THE NEURAL ANTICIPATION OF ACTIVE ROMANTIC CARESS

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Sjoerd J.H. Ebisch

    2014-02-01

    Full Text Available A romantic caress is a basic expression of affiliative behavior and a primary reinforcer. Given its inherent affective valence, its performance also would imply the prediction of reward values. For example, touching a person for whom one has strong passionate feelings likely is motivated by a strong desire for physical contact and associated with the anticipation of hedonic experiences. The present study aims at investigating how the anticipatory neural processes of active romantic caress are modulated by the intensity of the desire for affective contact as reflected by passionate feelings for the other. Functional magnetic resonance imaging scanning was performed in romantically involved partners using a paradigm that allowed to isolate the specific anticipatory representations of active romantic caress, compared with control caress, while testing for the relationship between neural activity and measures of feelings of passionate love for the other. The results demonstrated that right posterior insula activity in anticipation of romantic caress significantly co-varied with the intensity of desire for union with the other. This effect was independent of the sensory-affective properties of the performed touch, like its pleasantness. Furthermore, functional connectivity analysis showed that the same posterior insula cluster interacted with brain regions related to sensory-motor functions as well as to the processing and anticipation of reward. The findings provide insight on the neural substrate mediating between the desire for and the performance of romantic caress. In particular, we propose that anticipatory activity patterns in posterior insula may modulate subsequent sensory-affective processing of skin-to-skin contact.

  16. A review of sensing technologies for small and large-scale touch panels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Akhtar, Humza; Kemao, Qian; Kakarala, Ramakrishna

    2017-06-01

    A touch panel is an input device for human computer interaction. It consists of a network of sensors, a sampling circuit and a micro controller for detecting and locating a touch input. Touch input can come from either finger or stylus depending upon the type of touch technology. These touch panels provide an intuitive and collaborative workspace so that people can perform various tasks with the use of their fingers instead of traditional input devices like keyboard and mouse. Touch sensing technology is not new. At the time of this writing, various technologies are available in the market and this paper reviews the most common ones. We review traditional designs and sensing algorithms for touch technology. We also observe that due to its various strengths, capacitive touch will dominate the large-scale touch panel industry in years to come. In the end, we discuss the motivation for doing academic research on large-scale panels.

  17. Touch Processing and Social Behavior in ASD

    Science.gov (United States)

    Miguel, Helga O.; Sampaio, Adriana; Martínez-Regueiro, Rocío; Gómez-Guerrero, Lorena; López-Dóriga, Cristina Gutiérrez; Gómez, Sonia; Carracedo, Ángel; Fernández-Prieto, Montse

    2017-01-01

    Abnormal patterns of touch processing have been linked to core symptoms in ASD. This study examined the relation between tactile processing patterns and social problems in 44 children and adolescents with ASD, aged 6-14 (M = 8.39 ± 2.35). Multiple linear regression indicated significant associations between touch processing and social problems. No…

  18. Questioning the No-Touch Discourse in Physical Education from a Children's Rights Perspective

    Science.gov (United States)

    Öhman, Marie; Quennerstedt, Ann

    2017-01-01

    In this paper we question the rationality of "no-touch policies" and offer an alternative approach to the matter of physical contact between teachers and students in the context of physical education (PE) in schools. Earlier research has drawn attention to how a discourse of child protection is starting to affect how physical contact is…

  19. Open Touch/Sound Maps: A system to convey street data through haptic and auditory feedback

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kaklanis, Nikolaos; Votis, Konstantinos; Tzovaras, Dimitrios

    2013-08-01

    The use of spatial (geographic) information is becoming ever more central and pervasive in today's internet society but the most of it is currently inaccessible to visually impaired users. However, access in visual maps is severely restricted to visually impaired and people with blindness, due to their inability to interpret graphical information. Thus, alternative ways of a map's presentation have to be explored, in order to enforce the accessibility of maps. Multiple types of sensory perception like touch and hearing may work as a substitute of vision for the exploration of maps. The use of multimodal virtual environments seems to be a promising alternative for people with visual impairments. The present paper introduces a tool for automatic multimodal map generation having haptic and audio feedback using OpenStreetMap data. For a desired map area, an elevation map is being automatically generated and can be explored by touch, using a haptic device. A sonification and a text-to-speech (TTS) mechanism provide also audio navigation information during the haptic exploration of the map.

  20. Therapeutic touch: influence on vital signs of newborns

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramada, Nadia Christina Oliveira; Almeida, Fabiane de Amorim; Cunha, Mariana Lucas da Rocha

    2013-01-01

    ABSTRACT Objective>: To compare vital signs before and after the therapeutic touch observed in hospitalized newborns in neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: This was a quasi-experimental study performed at a neonatal intensive care unit of a municipal hospital, in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. The sample included 40 newborns submitted to the therapeutic touch after a painful procedure. We evaluated the vital signs, such as heart and respiratory rates, temperature and pain intensity, before and after the therapeutic touch. Results: The majority of newborns were male (n=28; 70%), pre-term (n=19; 52%) and born from vaginal delivery (n=27; 67%). Respiratory distress was the main reason for hospital admission (n=16; 40%). There was a drop in all vital signs after therapeutic touch, particularly in pain score, which had a considerable reduction in the mean values, from 3.37 (SD=1.31) to 0 (SD=0.0). All differences found were statistically significant by the Wilcoxon test (p<0.05). Conclusion: The results showed that therapeutic touch promotes relaxation of the baby, favoring reduction in vital signs and, consequently in the basal metabolism rate. PMID:24488378

  1. Temperature-touch interaction: Weber's phenomenon revisited.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stevens, J C; Green, B G

    1978-09-01

    The six experiments reported here stemmed from Weber's (E. H. Weber, In R. Wagner (Ed.), Handwnörterbuch der Physiologie, 1846. Vol. 3, pp. 481-588) report that cold objects on the forehead feel heavier than warm ones, implying an effect of temperature on the touch modality. The experiments arrived at first-order answers to how temperature, force of stimulation, areal size of stimulation, and body locus might influence the magnitude of touch sensation. Typically, concomitant cooling greatly intensifies touch magnitude as perceived via the forehead and the forearm. Warning has little or no effect via the forehead but gives a significant intensification (less pronounced than that of cooling) on the forearm. When the areal size of the stimulation becomes very small, the intensification effects cannot be reliably demonstrated. The findings are reviewed in the light of what is known about the physiology of the cutaneous nerves.

  2. Helping Hands: Designing Video Games with Interpersonal Touch Interaction

    OpenAIRE

    Watts , Cody; Sharlin , Ehud; Woytiuk , Peter

    2010-01-01

    International audience; Increasingly, the movements of players' physical bodies are being used as a method of controlling and playing video games. This trend is evidenced by the recent development of interpersonal touch-based games; multiplayer games which players control by physically touching their partners. Although a small number of interpersonal touch-based games have recently been designed, the best practices for creating video games based on this unconventional interaction technique re...

  3. The contribution of cutaneous and kinesthetic sensory modalities in haptic perception of orientation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Frisoli, Antonio; Solazzi, Massimiliano; Reiner, Miriam; Bergamasco, Massimo

    2011-06-30

    The aim of this study was to understand the integration of cutaneous and kinesthetic sensory modalities in haptic perception of shape orientation. A specific robotic apparatus was employed to simulate the exploration of virtual surfaces by active touch with two fingers, with kinesthetic only, cutaneous only and combined sensory feedback. The cutaneous feedback was capable of displaying the local surface orientation at the contact point, through a small plate indenting the fingerpad at contact. A psychophysics test was conducted with SDT methodology on 6 subjects to assess the discrimination threshold of angle perception between two parallel surfaces, with three sensory modalities and two shape sizes. Results show that the cutaneous sensor modality is not affected by size of shape, but kinesthetic performance is decreasing with smaller size. Cutaneous and kinesthetic sensory cues are integrated according to a Bayesian model, so that the combined sensory stimulation always performs better than single modalities alone. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  4. Merkel cells and neurons keep in touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Woo, Seung-Hyun; Lumpkin, Ellen A.; Patapoutian, Ardem

    2014-01-01

    The Merkel cell-neurite complex is a unique vertebrate touch receptor comprising two distinct cell types in the skin. Its presence in touch-sensitive skin areas was recognized more than a century ago, but the functions of each cell type in sensory transduction have been unclear. Three recent studies demonstrate that Merkel cells are mechanosensitive cells that function in touch transduction via Piezo2. One study concludes that Merkel cells rather than sensory neurons are principal sites of mechanotransduction, whereas the other two studies report that both Merkel cells and neurons encode mechanical inputs. Together, these studies settle a longstanding debate on whether Merkel cells are mechanosensory cells, and enable future investigations of how these skin cells communicate with neurons. PMID:25480024

  5. Touch Screen Performance by Individuals With and Without Motor Control Disabilities

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Karen B.; Savage, Anne B.; Chourasia, Amrish O.; Wiegmann, Douglas A.; Sesto, Mary E.

    2012-01-01

    Touch technology is becoming more prevalent as functionality improves and cost decreases. Therefore, it is important that this technology is accessible to users with diverse abilities. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of button and gap size on performance by individuals with varied motor abilities. Participants with (n=38) and without (n=15) a motor control disability completed a digit entry task. Button size ranged from 10 to 30 mm and gap size was either 1 or 3 mm. Results indicated that as button size increased, there was a decrease in misses, errors, and time to complete tasks. Performance for the non-disabled group plateaued at button size 20mm, with minimal, if any gains observed with larger button sizes. In comparison, the disabled group’s performance continued to improve as button size increased. Gap size did not affect user performance. These results may help to improve accessibility of touch technology. PMID:23021630

  6. Evaluation of touch-sensitive screen tablet terminal button size and spacing accounting for effect of fingertip contact angle.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nishimura, T; Doi, K; Fujimoto, H

    2015-08-01

    Touch-sensitive screen terminals enabling intuitive operation are used as input interfaces in a wide range of fields. Tablet terminals are one of the most common devices with a touch-sensitive screen. They have a feature of good portability, enabling use under various conditions. On the other hand, they require a GUI designed to prevent decrease of usability under various conditions. For example, the angle of fingertip contact with the display changes according to finger posture during operation and how the case is held. When a human fingertip makes contact with an object, the contact area between the fingertip and contact object increases or decreases as the contact angle changes. A touch-sensitive screen detects positions using the change in capacitance of the area touched by the fingertip; hence, differences in contact area between the touch-sensitive screen and fingertip resulting from different forefinger angles during operation could possibly affect operability. However, this effect has never been studied. We therefore conducted an experiment to investigate the relationship between size/spacing and operability, while taking the effect of fingertip contact angle into account. As a result, we have been able to specify the button size and spacing conditions that enable accurate and fast operation regardless of the forefinger contact angle.

  7. Touch sensitive electrorheological fluid based tactile display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yanju; Davidson, Rob; Taylor, Paul

    2005-12-01

    A tactile display is programmable device whose controlled surface is intended to be investigated by human touch. It has a great number of potential applications in the field of virtual reality and elsewhere. In this research, a 5 × 5 tactile display array including electrorheological (ER) fluid has been developed and investigated. Force responses of the tactile display array have been measured while a probe was moved across the upper surface. The purpose of this was to simulate the action of touch performed by human finger. Experimental results show that the sensed surface information could be controlled effectively by adjusting the voltage activation pattern imposed on the tactels. The performance of the tactile display is durable and repeatable. The touch sensitivity of this ER fluid based tactile display array has also been investigated in this research. The results show that it is possible to sense the touching force normal to the display's surface by monitoring the change of current passing through the ER fluid. These encouraging results are helpful for constructing a new type of tactile display based on ER fluid which can act as both sensor and actuator at the same time.

  8. Does restriction of pitch variation affect the perception of vocal emotions in Mandarin Chinese?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Wang, Ting; Lee, Yong-Cheol

    2015-01-01

    This study reports a finding about vocal expressions of emotion in Mandarin Chinese. Production and perception experiments used the same tone and mixed tone sequences to test whether pitch variation is restricted due to the presence of lexical tones. Results showed that the restriction of pitch variation occurred in all high level tone sequences (tone 1 group) with the expression of happiness but did not happen for other dynamic tone groups. However, perception analysis revealed that all the emotions in every tone group received high identification rates; this indicates that listeners used other cues for encoding happiness in the tone 1 group. This study demonstrates that the restriction of pitch variation does not affect the perception of vocal emotions.

  9. Sound frequency affects speech emotion perception: results from congenital amusia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lolli, Sydney L; Lewenstein, Ari D; Basurto, Julian; Winnik, Sean; Loui, Psyche

    2015-01-01

    Congenital amusics, or "tone-deaf" individuals, show difficulty in perceiving and producing small pitch differences. While amusia has marked effects on music perception, its impact on speech perception is less clear. Here we test the hypothesis that individual differences in pitch perception affect judgment of emotion in speech, by applying low-pass filters to spoken statements of emotional speech. A norming study was first conducted on Mechanical Turk to ensure that the intended emotions from the Macquarie Battery for Evaluation of Prosody were reliably identifiable by US English speakers. The most reliably identified emotional speech samples were used in Experiment 1, in which subjects performed a psychophysical pitch discrimination task, and an emotion identification task under low-pass and unfiltered speech conditions. Results showed a significant correlation between pitch-discrimination threshold and emotion identification accuracy for low-pass filtered speech, with amusics (defined here as those with a pitch discrimination threshold >16 Hz) performing worse than controls. This relationship with pitch discrimination was not seen in unfiltered speech conditions. Given the dissociation between low-pass filtered and unfiltered speech conditions, we inferred that amusics may be compensating for poorer pitch perception by using speech cues that are filtered out in this manipulation. To assess this potential compensation, Experiment 2 was conducted using high-pass filtered speech samples intended to isolate non-pitch cues. No significant correlation was found between pitch discrimination and emotion identification accuracy for high-pass filtered speech. Results from these experiments suggest an influence of low frequency information in identifying emotional content of speech.

  10. Direct skin-to-skin vs. indirect touch modulates neural responses to stroking vs. tapping

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kress, Inge U; Minati, Ludovico; Ferraro, Stefania; Critchley, Hugo D

    2011-01-01

    It remains unclear whether direct inter-personal contact is processed differently from similar soft touch applied through inanimate objects. We performed a functional MRI (fMRI) experiment in healthy volunteers, whereby activity during gentle stroking or tapping was compared between stimuli delivered using the experimenter’s hand or a velvet stick. Stroking with a hand elicited larger responses than the other three conditions in the contralateral primary and secondary somatosensory areas and posterior insula. The observed effects likely originate from a combination of perceptual differences and cognitive and emotional correlates of contact with another person. This empirical observation indicates that to ensure ecological validity studies of affective touch processing should be performed with stimuli delivered with direct inter-personal contact rather than inanimate objects. PMID:21817928

  11. Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Alejandrina Cristia

    Full Text Available Touch screens are increasingly prevalent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that young children are very drawn towards them. Yet there is little data regarding how young children use them. A brief online questionnaire queried over 450 French parents of infants between the ages of 5 and 40 months on their young child's use of touch-screen technology. Parents estimated frequency of use, and further completed several checklists. Results suggest that, among respondent families, the use of touch screens is widespread in early childhood, meaning that most children have some exposure to touch screens. Among child users, certain activities are more frequently reported to be liked than others, findings that we discuss in light of current concern for children's employment of time and the cognitive effects of passive media exposure. Additionally, these parental reports point to clear developmental trends for certain types of interactive gestures. These results contribute to the investigation of touch screen use on early development and suggest a number of considerations that should help improve the design of applications geared towards toddlers, particularly for scientific purposes.

  12. Parental Reports on Touch Screen Use in Early Childhood.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cristia, Alejandrina; Seidl, Amanda

    2015-01-01

    Touch screens are increasingly prevalent, and anecdotal evidence suggests that young children are very drawn towards them. Yet there is little data regarding how young children use them. A brief online questionnaire queried over 450 French parents of infants between the ages of 5 and 40 months on their young child's use of touch-screen technology. Parents estimated frequency of use, and further completed several checklists. Results suggest that, among respondent families, the use of touch screens is widespread in early childhood, meaning that most children have some exposure to touch screens. Among child users, certain activities are more frequently reported to be liked than others, findings that we discuss in light of current concern for children's employment of time and the cognitive effects of passive media exposure. Additionally, these parental reports point to clear developmental trends for certain types of interactive gestures. These results contribute to the investigation of touch screen use on early development and suggest a number of considerations that should help improve the design of applications geared towards toddlers, particularly for scientific purposes.

  13. Multisensory flavor perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spence, Charles

    2015-03-26

    The perception of flavor is perhaps the most multisensory of our everyday experiences. The latest research by psychologists and cognitive neuroscientists increasingly reveals the complex multisensory interactions that give rise to the flavor experiences we all know and love, demonstrating how they rely on the integration of cues from all of the human senses. This Perspective explores the contributions of distinct senses to our perception of food and the growing realization that the same rules of multisensory integration that have been thoroughly explored in interactions between audition, vision, and touch may also explain the combination of the (admittedly harder to study) flavor senses. Academic advances are now spilling out into the real world, with chefs and food industry increasingly taking the latest scientific findings on board in their food design. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  14. POINT-OF-PURCHASE SIGNS, IMPULSE PURCHASES, AND INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN THE "DESIRE TO TOUCH"

    OpenAIRE

    Peck, Joann; Childers, Terry

    2000-01-01

    What is the role of touch in consumer behavior? Consumers are especially motivated to touch some products before buying them, and for some people, those high in "desire to touch", touching before buying is especially important. In addition, some situations encourage consumers to touch goods before purchasing them. How do these relate to impulse purchases? People high in their "desire to touch" are more likely to make impulse purchases. Point-of-purchase signs that encourage touching a product...

  15. Perceptions of HR practices, person–organisation fit, and affective commitment: The moderating role of career stage

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kooij, D.T.A.M.; Boon, C.

    In a three-wave survey study among 487 Dutch university employees, we examined how and when employees' perceptions of high-performance work practices (HPWP) affect employee affective commitment. We proposed that perceived person–organisation (PO) fit mediates this relationship and that the

  16. Perceptions of HR practices, person–organization fit, and affective commitment : The moderating role of career stage

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Kooij, T.A.M.; Boon, Corine

    2018-01-01

    In a three-wave survey study among 487 Dutch university employees, we examined how and when employees' perceptions of high-performance work practices (HPWP) affect employee affective commitment. We proposed that perceived person–organisation (PO) fit mediates this relationship and that the

  17. TouchWB : Touch behavioral user authentication based on web browsing on smartphones

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Meng, Weizhi; Wang, Yu; Wong, Duncan S.

    2018-01-01

    browsing gestures. For evaluation, we implemented the scheme on Android phones and conducted a user study involving 48 participants. Experimental results demonstrated that our approach could reduce the touch behavioral deviation by nearly half and achieve an average error rate of about 2.4% by using...

  18. A Deported View Concept for Touch Interaction

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Alapetite, Alexandre; Andersen, Henning Boje; Fogh, Rune

    2013-01-01

    Following the paradigm shift where physical controls are replaced by touch-enabled surfaces, we report on an experimental evaluation of a user interface concept that allows touchscreen-based panels to be manipulated partially blindly (aircrafts, cars). The proposed multi-touch interaction strategy...... – involving visual front-view feedback to the user from a copy of the peripheral panel being manipulated – compares favourably against trackballs or head-down interactions....

  19. Goal-Role Integration as Driver for Customer Engagement Behaviours across Touch-points

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Haurum, Helle; Beckmann, Suzanne C.

    Customers and firms interact at many different touch-points that enable customer engagement behaviour. By adopting a customer-centric approach we investigated through 20 in-depth interviews what drives service customers’ CEB manifestations in touch-points, which the firm either manages, monitors......, or manoeuvres between. The key findings are that (a) CEBs are driven by different forms of goal-role integration across touch-points, (b) customers’ goal-directedness determines the touch-points where CEBs are manifested, (c) customers’ role-playing behaviours determine the nature of CEBs, and (d) customers......’ role-playing behaviours can change across touch-points, contingent upon goal-directedness. Hence, this study provides rich insights into customer-firm encounters at touch-points, which subsequently define and shape the relation over time....

  20. Antibacterial Metallic Touch Surfaces

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Victor M. Villapún

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Our aim is to present a comprehensive review of the development of modern antibacterial metallic materials as touch surfaces in healthcare settings. Initially we compare Japanese, European and US standards for the assessment of antimicrobial activity. The variations in methodologies defined in these standards are highlighted. Our review will also cover the most relevant factors that define the antimicrobial performance of metals, namely, the effect of humidity, material geometry, chemistry, physical properties and oxidation of the material. The state of the art in contact-killing materials will be described. Finally, the effect of cleaning products, including disinfectants, on the antimicrobial performance, either by direct contact or by altering the touch surface chemistry on which the microbes attach, will be discussed. We offer our outlook, identifying research areas that require further development and an overview of potential future directions of this exciting field.

  1. Creating iPhone Apps with Cocoa Touch

    CERN Document Server

    Hockenberry, Craig

    2010-01-01

    Creating iPhone Apps with Cocoa Touch: The Mini Missing Manual walks you through developing your first iPhone App and introduces you to your programming environments and tools: Cocoa Touch, Interface Builder, Xcode, and the Objective-C programming language. If you're a Java or C developer, this eBook is your fast track to App development. This eBook is adapted from parts of iPhone App Development: The Missing Manual.

  2. Discomfort and avoidance of touch: new insights on the emotional deficits of social anxiety.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kashdan, Todd B; Doorley, James; Stiksma, Melissa C; Hertenstein, Matthew J

    2017-12-01

    Physical touch is central to the emotional intimacy that separates romantic relationships from other social contexts. In this study of 256 adults (128 heterosexual couples, mean relationship length = 20.5 months), we examined whether individual differences in social anxiety influenced comfort with and avoidance of physical touch. Because of prior work on sex difference in touch use, touch comfort, and social anxiety symptoms and impairment, we explored sex-specific findings. We found evidence that women with greater social anxiety were less comfortable with touch and more avoidant of touch in same-sex friendships. Additionally, a woman's social anxiety had a bigger effect on a man's comfort with touch and avoidance of touch in the romantic relationship than a man's social anxiety had on the woman's endorsement of touch-related problems. These effects were uninfluenced by the length of romantic relationships. Touch is a neglected emotional experience that offers new insights into the difficulties of individuals suffering from social anxiety problems, and their romantic partners.

  3. Human figure drawings and children's recall of touching.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruck, Maggie

    2009-12-01

    In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2. Each recall interview had 2 sections: In 1 section, children were given human figure drawings (HFDs) and were asked to show where the touching took place; in the other section, the same questions were asked without the HFDs (verbal condition). Children were randomly assigned to 2 different conditions: HFD 1st/verbal 2nd or verbal 1st/HFD 2nd. There were 2 major findings. First, HFDs elicited more errors than the verbal condition when used to probe for information that the child had already been asked. Second, regardless of interview method, children had poor recall of the touches even when these occurred minutes before the interview. It is suggested that cognitive mechanisms involving memory and semantics underlie children's poor recall of touching in both verbal and HFD conditions. Copyright 2009 APA

  4. Therapeutic touch: influence on vital signs of newborns.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ramada, Nadia Christina Oliveira; Almeida, Fabiane de Amorim; Cunha, Mariana Lucas da Rocha

    2013-12-01

    To compare vital signs before and after the therapeutic touch observed in hospitalized newborns in neonatal intensive care unit. This was a quasi-experimental study performed at a neonatal intensive care unit of a municipal hospital, in the city of São Paulo (SP), Brazil. The sample included 40 newborns submitted to the therapeutic touch after a painful procedure. We evaluated the vital signs, such as heart and respiratory rates, temperature and pain intensity, before and after the therapeutic touch. The majority of newborns were male (n=28; 70%), pre-term (n=19; 52%) and born from vaginal delivery (n=27; 67%). Respiratory distress was the main reason for hospital admission (n=16; 40%). There was a drop in all vital signs after therapeutic touch, particularly in pain score, which had a considerable reduction in the mean values, from 3.37 (SD=1.31) to 0 (SD=0.0). All differences found were statistically significant by the Wilcoxon test (ptouch promotes relaxation of the baby, favoring reduction in vital signs and, consequently in the basal metabolism rate.

  5. Touching force response of the piezoelectric Braille cell.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smithmaitrie, Pruittikorn; Kanjantoe, Jinda; Tandayya, Pichaya

    2008-11-01

    The objective of this research is to investigate dynamic responses of the piezoelectric Braille cell when it is subjected to both electrical signal and touching force. Physical behavior of the piezoelectric actuator inside the piezoelectric Braille cell is analyzed. The mathematical model of the piezoelectric Braille system is presented. Then, data of visually impaired people using a Braille Note is studied as design information and a reference input for calculation of the piezoelectric Braille response under the touching force. The results show dynamic responses of the piezoelectric Braille cell. The designed piezoelectric bimorph has a settling time of 0.15 second. The relationship between the Braille dot height and applied voltage is linear. The behavior of the piezoelectric Braille dot when it is touched during operation shows that the dot height is decreased as the force increases. The result provides understanding of the piezoelectric Braille cell behavior under both touching force and electrical excitation simultaneously. This is the important issue for the design and development of piezoelectric Braille cells in senses of controlling Braille dot displacement or force-feedback in the future.

  6. The effects of negative emotions on sensory perception: fear but not anger decreases tactile sensitivity.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kelley, Nicholas J; Schmeichel, Brandon J

    2014-01-01

    Emotions and sensory perceptions are closely intertwined. Of the five senses, sight has been by far the most extensively studied sense in emotion research. Relatively less is known about how emotions influence the other four senses. Touch is essential for nonverbal communication in both humans and other animals. The current investigation tested competing hypotheses about the effect of fear on tactile perception. One hypothesis based on evolutionary considerations predicts that fear enhances sensory perception, including tactile sensitivity. A competing hypothesis based on research on peripheral psychophysiology predicts that fear should decrease tactile sensitivity. Two experiments that induced negative emotional states and measured two-point discrimination ability at the fingertip found that fear reduces tactile sensitivity relative to anger or a neutral control condition (Studies 1 and 2). These findings did not appear to be driven by participants' naïve beliefs about the influence of emotions on touch (Study 3). The results represent the first evidence of the causal impact of emotional states on tactile sensitivity, are consistent with prior evidence for the peripheral physiological effects of fear, and offer novel empirical grounds for developing and advancing theories of emotional influences on sensory perception.

  7. Effect of therapeutic touch on brain activation of preterm infants in response to sensory punctate stimulus: a near-infrared spectroscopy-based study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Honda, Noritsugu; Ohgi, Shohei; Wada, Norihisa; Loo, Kek Khee; Higashimoto, Yuji; Fukuda, Kanji

    2013-05-01

    The purpose of this study was to determine whether therapeutic touch in preterm infants can ameliorate their sensory punctate stimulus response in terms of brain activation measured by near-infrared spectroscopy. The study included 10 preterm infants at 34-40 weeks' corrected age. Oxyhaemoglobin (Oxy-Hb) concentration, heart rate (HR), arterial oxygen saturation (SaO2) and body movements were recorded during low-intensity sensory punctate stimulation for 1 s with and without therapeutic touch by a neonatal development specialist nurse. Each stimulation was followed by a resting phase of 30 s. All measurements were performed with the infants asleep in the prone position. sensory punctate stimulus exposure significantly increased the oxy-Hb concentration but did not affect HR, SaO2 and body movements. The infants receiving therapeutic touch had significantly decreased oxy-Hb concentrations over time. Therapeutic touch in preterm infants can ameliorate their sensory punctate stimulus response in terms of brain activation, indicated by increased cerebral oxygenation. Therefore, therapeutic touch may have a protective effect on the autoregulation of cerebral blood flow during sensory punctate stimulus in neonates.

  8. Combining mediated social touch with vision : from self-attribution to telepresence?

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Haans, A.; IJsselsteijn, W.A.; Nijholt, A.; Dijk, E.O.; Lemmens, P.M.C.; Luitjens, S.

    2010-01-01

    Combining mediated social touch (i.e., interpersonal touch over a distance by means of a tactile display) with vision allows people to both see and feel their remote interaction partner’s touches. This is expected to increase the user’s sense of telepresence (i.e., the experience of "being there" in

  9. Sencha Touch Mobile JavaScript Framework

    CERN Document Server

    Rao, SSVV Narasimha

    2012-01-01

    This book is a step-by-step tutorial aimed at beginners to Sencha Touch. There is ready sample code explained with essential screenshots for better and quicker understanding. This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical knowledge involved in using Sencha Touch mobile web application framework to make attractive web apps for mobiles. If you have some familiarity with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provides developers with creative inspiration through practical examples. It is assumed that

  10. A Multi-touch Tool for Co-creation

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ludden, Geke D. S.; Broens, Tom

    Multi-touch technology provides an attractive way for knowledge workers to collaborate. Co-creation is an important collaboration process in which collecting resources, creating results and distributing these results is essential. We propose a wall-based multi-touch system (called CoCreate) in which these steps are made easy due to the notion of connected private spaces and a shared co-create space. We present our ongoing work, expert evaluation of interaction scenarios and future plans.

  11. Braille Touch : Mobile Touchscreen Text Entry for the Visually Impaired

    OpenAIRE

    Southern, Caleb; Clawson, James; Frey, Brian; Abowd, Gregory; Romero, Mario

    2012-01-01

    We present a demonstration of BrailleTouch, an accessible keyboard for blind users on a touchscreen smartphone (see Figure 1). Based on the standard Perkins Brailler, BrailleTouch implements a six-key chorded braille soft keyboard [1]. We will briefly introduce audience members to the braille code, and then allow them to hold the BrailleTouch prototype and enter text, with the aid of a visual chart of the braille alphabet. QC 20160418

  12. Toddlers' Word Learning from Contingent and Noncontingent Video on Touch Screens

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kirkorian, Heather L.; Choi, Koeun; Pempek, Tiffany A.

    2016-01-01

    Researchers examined whether contingent experience using a touch screen increased toddlers' ability to learn a word from video. One hundred and sixteen children (24-36 months) watched an on-screen actress label an object: (a) without interacting, (b) with instructions to touch "anywhere" on the screen, or (c) with instructions to touch a…

  13. The Use of Touch in Counseling: An Ethical Decision-Making Model

    Science.gov (United States)

    Calmes, Stephanie A.; Piazza, Nick J.; Laux, John M.

    2013-01-01

    Although some counselors have advocated for the limited use of touch in counseling, others have argued that touch has no place within the counseling relationship. Despite the controversy, the use of touch has been shown to have a number of therapeutic benefits; however, there are few ethical decision-making models that are appropriate for…

  14. Analysis of touch used by occupational therapy practitioners in skilled nursing facilities.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morris, Douglas; Henegar, J; Khanin, S; Oberle, G; Thacker, S

    2014-09-01

    Instrumental touch is identified as having purposeful physical contact in order to complete a task. Expressive touch is identified as warm, friendly physical contact and is not solely for performing a task. Expressive touch has been associated with improved client status, increased rapport and greater gains made during therapy. The purpose of the study was to observe the frequency of expressive and instrumental touch utilized by an occupational therapist during an occupational therapy session. Thirty-three occupational therapy professionals, including occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants, employed at skilled nursing facilities in southwest Florida were observed. Data were collected on the Occupational Therapy Interaction Assessment. The results of the data analysis showed a positive relationship between the gender of the therapist and the frequency of expressive touch. The data also showed that a large majority of touches were instrumental touch and pertained to functional mobility. The results of the study can contribute to a better understanding of the holistic aspects of occupational therapy. By the use of more expressive touch, occupational therapy practitioners may have a positive, beneficial effect on both the client and the therapy process as a whole. Further research is needed to determine the effect an occupational therapy setting has on the frequency of instrumental and expressive touch. A larger sample size and a distinction between evaluation and treatment sessions would benefit future studies. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  15. Does Risk Perception Affect Alcohol Consumption among Secondary School Students in Jamaica?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oshi, Sarah N; Abel, Wendel D; Ricketts Roomes, Tana; Meka, Ijeoma A; Harrison, Joy; Weaver, Steve; Agu, Chinwendu F; Smith, Patrice Whitehorne; Omeje, Joachim C; Rae, Tania; Oshi, Daniel C

    2018-04-23

    Background: Alcohol consumption among young people is a major public health problem world-wide and in Jamaica. A number of factors have been reported to affect alcohol use among high school students. The aim of this study was to investigate the influence of perception of the harmfulness of alcohol on alcohol use among secondary school students in Jamaica. Methods: Data collected from a nationally representative sample of 3,365 students were analyzed. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS. Results: Students’ perception of risk of drinking alcohol frequently and getting drunk respectively had positive and significant associations with past month alcohol use (AOR= 1.44, 95% CI= 1.09- 1.88 and AOR= 1.38, 95% CI= 1.02- 1.86, respectively) compared to students who felt that drinking alcohol frequently and getting drunk were very harmful. Males, 12 years or younger were significantly less likely to use alcohol in the past month (AOR= 0.77, 95% CI=0.60- 0.97; AOR= 0.68, 95% CI= 0.53-0.97 respectively). Students with good relationship with their mothers were less likely to use alcohol in the past year and past month (AOR= 0.55, 95% CI= 0.35-0.87; AOR= 0.50, 95% CI= 0.32- 0.78). Conclusion: Risk perception of the harmfulness of alcohol significantly affects alcohol use among secondary school students in Jamaica. Males, 12 years or younger, who had good relationship with mothers, were significantly less likely to use alcohol in past month Creative Commons Attribution License

  16. Multiple caregivers' touch interactions with young children among the Bofi foragers in Central Africa.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jung, Min-Jung; Fouts, Hillary N

    2011-02-01

    The current study examined the use of three types of touch (caregiving, active social-affectionate, and passive social-affectionate) by caregivers with young children among the Bofi foragers, a seminomadic group of hunter-gatherers in Central Africa. With the purpose of providing a more holistic view of touch interactions in early childhood, compared to extant Western mother-centric views, this study documents stylistic touch patterns used by multiple caregivers (mother, father, adult relatives, and juvenile relatives) with Bofi forager children. Thirty-five Bofi forager children, between 18 and 59 months of age, and their various caregivers were naturalistically observed over 12 daylight hours using a focal child observational technique. Frequencies of each type of touch and the rank order of types of touch that children received were compared between caregivers and examined by child age and gender. Even though nonmaternal caregivers showed high physical involvement with children, mothers exemplified the highest level of involvement. Overall, passive social-affectionate touch was utilized the most by all types of caregivers. Mothers used more caregiving touch, and fathers and adult relatives had similar frequencies of caregiving touch and active social-affectionate touch. In contrast, juvenile relatives showed more active social-affectionate touch with focal children. This study highlights the importance of examining multiple caregivers and physical interactions when studying early childhood experiences. Furthermore, by focusing on multiple caregivers and multiple types of touch, this study provides a more thorough characterization of the touch experiences of young children than previous studies of touch. Finally, the current study exemplifies the value of considering non-Western populations when investigating touch interactions.

  17. Pregnant mothers' perceptions of how intimate partner violence affects their unborn children.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alhusen, Jeanne L; Wilson, Damali

    2015-01-01

    To explore the perceptions of pregnant women on the experience of intimate partner violence (IPV) as it affects maternal and fetal health. Secondary qualitative content analysis. Individual interviews conducted within three urban obstetric and gynecologic clinics. Our sample included a subset of eight pregnant women experiencing IPV during the current pregnancy. Participants were selected from a larger parent study that included qualitative data from 13 women. We analyzed in-depth individual interview transcripts in which participants discussed how they perceived IPV to affect their health as well as the health of their unborn children. Constant comparative techniques and conventional content analysis methodology were used in analysis. Three themes emerged to illustrate mothers' perceptions of how IPV influenced maternal and fetal outcomes: protection, fetal awareness, and fetal well-being. This analysis provides important insights into concerns that pregnant women experiencing IPV shared about maternal attachment and fetal well-being. Health care providers can use these findings to better assess the physical and psychological concerns of pregnant women experiencing IPV. Further research is needed to better understand how IPV contributes to adverse neonatal outcomes, particularly from a biological perspective. © 2015 AWHONN, the Association of Women's Health, Obstetric and Neonatal Nurses.

  18. HOMEinTOUCH

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Petersen, Marianne Graves; Borup Hansen, Aviaja; Rosengreen Nielsen, Kaspar

    2008-01-01

    Digital Picture Frames has received attention both research wise and by consumers, who are increasingly buying existing solutions. In this paper we investigate how to design improved picture frames through providing means for two-way communication and through exploring the potential in providing...... automatically generated context information. We report on the design and trial use of a HOMEinTOUCH, an experience prototype of a picture frame for domestic environment, supporting two-way communication and context-information around pictures. We tested this prototype, as well as two other commercial products...

  19. Touch me, touch me not: senses, faith and performativity in early modernity:introduction

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Erin E. Benay

    2015-02-01

    Full Text Available This issue brings together an exciting collection of essays that investigate the collaborative roles of senses in the genesis and experience of renaissance and baroque art. Examining, in particular, the ways in which senses were evoked in the realm of the sacred, where questions of the validity of sensory experience were particularly contentious and fluid, the contributors seek to problematise the neoplatonic imperialism of sight and sense hierarchies that traditionally considered touch, along with smell and taste, as base and bodily. The essays show instead that it was a multiplicity of sensory modalities – touch, sight, hearing, and sometimes even taste and smell, that provided access to the divine – and shaped the imaginative, physical and performative experience of works of art. The issue’s project thus brings us closer to achieving Geraldine Johnson’s eloquent proprosal, that, by revisioning Michael Baxandall’s famous ‘period eye’, we might, in fact, arrive at a more aptly described, historically specific, 'period body'.

  20. Adolescents' Perceptions of Parental Affect: An Investigation of Only Children vs. Firstborns and the Effect of Spacing

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kidwell, Jeannie S.

    1978-01-01

    Research results revealed only-born adolescents to perceive higher positive perceptions in three measures of parental affect than do first-born adolescents. Perceived parental affect was found to vary by spacing in a consistent pattern for males towards both parents. (Author/MA)

  1. Therapeutic touch and agitation in individuals with Alzheimer's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hawranik, Pamela; Johnston, Pat; Deatrich, Judith

    2008-06-01

    Limited effective strategies exist to alleviate or treat disruptive behaviors in people with Alzheimer's disease. Fifty-one residents of a long-term care facility with Alzheimer's disease were randomly assigned to one of three intervention groups. A multiple time series, blinded, experimental design was used to compare the effectiveness of therapeutic touch, simulated therapeutic touch, and usual care on disruptive behavior. Three forms of disruptive behavior comprised the dependent variables: physical aggression, physical nonaggression, and verbal agitation. Physical nonaggressive behaviors decreased significantly in those residents who received therapeutic touch compared with those who received the simulated version and the usual care. No significant differences in physically aggressive and verbally agitated behaviors were observed across the three study groups. The study provided preliminary evidence for the potential for therapeutic touch in dealing with agitated behaviors by people with dementia. Researchers and practitioners must consider a broad array of strategies to deal with these behaviors.

  2. Parent-Child Positive Touch: Gender, Age, and Task Differences.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aznar, Ana; Tenenbaum, Harriet R

    2016-01-01

    This study examined gender, age, and task differences in positive touch and physical proximity during mother-child and father-child conversations. Sixty-five Spanish mothers and fathers and their 4- ( M  = 53.50 months, SD  = 3.54) and 6-year-old ( M  = 77.07 months, SD  = 3.94) children participated in this study. Positive touch was examined during a play-related storytelling task and a reminiscence task (conversation about past emotions). Fathers touched their children positively more frequently during the play-related storytelling task than did mothers. Both mothers and fathers were in closer proximity to their 6-year-olds than their 4-year-olds. Mothers and fathers touched their children positively more frequently when reminiscing than when playing. Finally, 6-year-olds remained closer to their parents than did 4-year-olds. Implications of these findings for future research on children's socioemotional development are discussed.

  3. Transfer of calibration between length and sweet-spot perception by dynamic touch

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Withagen, Rob; Michaels, Claire F.

    2007-01-01

    Calibration is the process that scales perceptual judgment or action to information. An earlier study (Withagen & Michaels, 2004) suggested that perceptual calibration is specific to information-to-perception relations. In the present experiments, the authors tested this hypothesis by asking whether

  4. Developing C# Apps for iPhone and iPad using MonoTouch

    CERN Document Server

    Costanich, Bryan

    2011-01-01

    Developing C# Applications for iPhone and iPad using MonoTouch shows you how to use your existing C# skills to write apps for the iPhone and iPad. Fortunately, there's MonoTouch, Novell's .NET library that allows C# developers to write C# code that executes in iOS. Furthermore, MonoTouch allows you to address all the unique functions of the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. And the big plus: You needn't learn any Objective-C to master MonoTouch!. Former Microsoft engineer and published app-store developer Bryan Costanich shows you how to use the tools you already know to create native apps in iOS

  5. Topography of social touching depends on emotional bonds between humans

    OpenAIRE

    Suvilehto, Juulia T.; Glerean, Enrico; Dunbar, Robin I. M.; Hari, Riitta; Nummenmaa, Lauri

    2015-01-01

    Touch is a powerful tool for communicating positive emotions. However, it has remained unknown to what extent social touch would maintain and establish social bonds. We asked a total of 1,368 people from five countries to reveal, using an Internet-based topographical self-reporting tool, those parts of their body that they would allow relatives, friends, and strangers to touch. These body regions formed relationship-specific maps in which the total area was directly related to the strength of...

  6. Perceptions of Educational Barriers Affecting the Academic Achievement of Latino K-12 Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Becerra, David

    2012-01-01

    This study examined different factors affecting the perceptions of barriers in academic achievement of Latino K-12 students. The study used data from 1,508 participants who identified themselves as being of Hispanic or Latino heritage in the 2004 National Survey of Latinos: Education, compiled by the Pew Hispanic Center between August 7 and…

  7. Touch DNA collection versus firearm fingerprinting: comparing evidence production and identification outcomes.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nunn, Samuel

    2013-05-01

    A project by a metropolitan police agency in 2008-2009 had police use touch DNA kits to collect cell samples from seized firearms. To assess outcomes, results of touch DNA swabbing of firearms were compared to fingerprinting firearm evidence. The rationale was that fingerprinting, as the older technology, was the baseline against which to compare touch DNA. But little is known about ways to measure touch DNA productivity compared to fingerprinting. To examine differences between the two requires comparable measurements. Two measures were used: quantity of probative or investigative evidence produced and identification outcomes. When applied to firearms seized within an Indianapolis, IN police district, touch DNA produced a larger volume of evidence than fingerprinting, but identification outcomes for the two methods were equal. Because touch DNA was deployed by police patrol officers, there are implications for firearm forensics and the choice of forensic approaches used by police. © 2013 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.

  8. Out of touch with reality? Social perception in first-episode schizophrenia

    OpenAIRE

    Ebisch, Sjoerd J. H.; Salone, Anatolia; Ferri, Francesca; De Berardis, Domenico; Romani, Gian Luca; Ferro, Filippo M.; Gallese, Vittorio

    2013-01-01

    Social dysfunction has been recognized as an elementary feature of schizophrenia, but it remains a crucial issue whether social deficits in schizophrenia concern the inter-subjective domain or primarily have their roots in disturbances of self-experience. Social perception comprises vicarious processes grounding an experiential inter-relationship with others as well as self-regulation processes allowing to maintain a coherent sense of self. The present study investigated whether the functiona...

  9. Preschool Children's Perceptions of the Value of Affection as Seen in Their Drawings

    Science.gov (United States)

    Günindi, Yunus

    2015-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to examine the perceptions of children in preschool education with regard to the value of affection in the pictures they draw. The study involved 199 children aged 60 months old or above. The descriptive research method was used and data were collected with the draw-and-explain technique. During the collection of the…

  10. Are Tourists’ Environmental Behavior Affected by Their Environmental Perceptions and Beliefs?

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nichola Anastasia RAMCHURJEE

    2015-10-01

    Full Text Available The key to eliminating environmental problems depends mainly on how much individuals are motivated to change their consumer behaviors and participate in more environmentally responsible practices. The purpose of this research is to examine if tourists’ environmental behaviors are affected by their environmental perceptions and beliefs and how these concepts influence tourists to engage in environmentally responsible behaviors while visiting Hassan, Karnataka India. Random sampling utilizes a structured questionnaire for this investigation. The questionnaire consisted of four sections with 335 participants. The results showed that some tourists engage in positive environmental behaviors. It also revealed that the tourists largely held positive environmental beliefs and perceptions, and are aware of the concerns for the environment, however, they are not ready to transfer their environmental beliefs into their behavioral practices. Their main aim when on vacation is to experience the destination and activities offered, relax and enjoy the cultural atmosphere and to generally “have a good time”.

  11. Light and heavy touch reduces postural sway and modifies axial tone in Parkinson's disease.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franzén, Erika; Paquette, Caroline; Gurfinkel, Victor; Horak, Fay

    2012-10-01

    Light touch with a stable object reduces postural sway by increasing axial postural tone in healthy subjects. However, it is unknown whether subjects with Parkinson's disease (PD), who have more postural sway and higher axial postural tone than healthy subjects, can benefit from haptic touch. To investigate the effect of light and heavy touch on postural stability and hip tone in subjects with PD. Fourteen subjects with mid-stage PD and 14 healthy control subjects were evaluated during quiet standing with eyes closed with their arms (a) crossed, (b) lightly touching a fixed rigid bar in front of them, and (c) firmly gripping the bar. Postural sway was measured with a forceplate, and axial hip tone was quantified using a unique device that measures the resistance of the hips to yaw rotation while maintaining active stance. Subjects with PD significantly decreased their postural sway with light or heavy touch (P touch, hip tone was larger in PD subjects. With touch, however, tone values were similar in both groups. This change in hip tone with touch was highly correlated with the initial amount of tone (PD, r = -.72 to -.95; controls, r = -.74 to -.85). The authors showed, for the first time, that subjects with PD benefit from touch similarly to control subjects and that despite higher axial postural tone, PD subjects are able to modulate their tone with touch. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between touch and postural tone.

  12. Modulation of C. elegans Touch Sensitivity Is Integrated at Multiple Levels

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chen, Xiaoyin

    2014-01-01

    Sensory systems can adapt to different environmental signals. Here we identify four conditions that modulate anterior touch sensitivity in Caenorhabditis elegans after several hours and demonstrate that such sensory modulation is integrated at multiple levels to produce a single output. Prolonged vibration involving integrin signaling directly sensitizes the touch receptor neurons (TRNs). In contrast, hypoxia, the dauer state, and high salt reduce touch sensitivity by preventing the release of long-range neuroregulators, including two insulin-like proteins. Integration of these latter inputs occurs at upstream neurohormonal cells and at the insulin signaling cascade within the TRNs. These signals and those from integrin signaling converge to modulate touch sensitivity by regulating AKT kinases and DAF-16/FOXO. Thus, activation of either the integrin or insulin pathways can compensate for defects in the other pathway. This modulatory system integrates conflicting signals from different modalities, and adapts touch sensitivity to both mechanical and non-mechanical conditions. PMID:24806678

  13. Touching points in the energy band structure of bilayer graphene superlattices

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Pham, C Huy; Nguyen, V Lien

    2014-01-01

    The energy band structure of the bilayer graphene superlattices with zero-averaged periodic δ-function potentials are studied within the four-band continuum model. Using the transfer matrix method, the study is mainly focused on examining the touching points between adjacent minibands. For the zero-energy touching points the dispersion relation derived shows a Dirac-like double-cone shape with the group velocity which is periodic in the potential strength P with the period of π and becomes anisotropic at relatively large P. From the finite-energy touching points we have identified those located at zero wave-number. It was shown that for these finite-energy touching points the dispersion is direction-dependent in the sense that it is linear or parabolic in the direction parallel or perpendicular to the superlattice direction, respectively. We have also calculated the density of states and the conductivity which demonstrates a manifestation of the touching points examined. (paper)

  14. A First Step toward the Automatic Understanding of Social Touch for Naturalistic Human–Robot Interaction

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Jung, Merel Madeleine; Poel, Mannes; Reidsma, Dennis; Heylen, Dirk K.J.

    2017-01-01

    Social robots should be able to automatically understand and respond to human touch. The meaning of touch does not only depend on the form of touch but also on the context in which the touch takes place. To gain more insight into the factors that are relevant to interpret the meaning of touch within

  15. Object recognition - Convergence of vision, audition, and touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Kassuba, Tanja

    of object information across audition and touch or across all thee senses. Further, even though object recognition within different senses is to some degree redundant, the different senses differ with respect to their intrinsic efficiency in extracting types of information (Lederman & Klatzky, 2009...... magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), diffusion tensor imaging (DTI), and repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS). The following research questions were addressed: 1. Where in the human brain does object recognition converge across vision, audition, and touch? 2. How is audio-haptic object......-match-to-sample task was applied in which participants had to match a target object with a previously presented sample object within and across audition and touch in both directions (auditory─haptic and haptic─auditory). As a coherence in content is an important binding cue (Laurienti et al., 2004), semantic...

  16. Smartphone User Authentication Using Touch Dynamics in the Big Data Era: Challenges and Opportunities

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jiang, Lijun; Meng, Weizhi

    2016-01-01

    dynamics can be described as the characteristics of the inputs received from a touchscreen when a user is interacting with a device (e.g., a touchscreen mobile phone). Intuitively, touch dynamics is different from keystroke dynamics in that touch dynamics has more input types such as multi-touch and touch...

  17. Human Figure Drawings and Children’s Recall of Touching

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bruck, Maggie

    2010-01-01

    In 2 studies, children ages 3 to 7 years were asked to recall a series of touches that occurred during a previous staged event. The recall interview took place 1 week after the event in Study 1 and immediately after the event in Study 2. Each recall interview had 2 sections: In 1 section, children were given human figure drawings (HFDs) and were asked to show where the touching took place; in the other section, the same questions were asked without the HFDs (verbal condition). Children were randomly assigned to 2 different conditions: HFD 1st/verbal 2nd or verbal 1st/HFD 2nd. There were 2 major findings. First, HFDs elicited more errors than the verbal condition when used to probe for information that the child had already been asked. Second, regardless of interview method, children had poor recall of the touches even when these occurred minutes before the interview. It is suggested that cognitive mechanisms involving memory and semantics underlie children’s poor recall of touching in both verbal and HFD conditions. PMID:20025421

  18. Pain-relevant anxiety affects desire for pain relief, but not pain perception

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Adriana Banozic

    2017-01-01

    Full Text Available Background: Pain context plays a significant role in the perception of pain. Despite recent interest in vicarious learning and anxiety in pain modulation, there have been no attempts to explore pain modulation by specific environmental cues. Aims: Therefore, the present study evaluated pain responses in the condition that was attributed as either anxiety relevant (AR or anxiety irrelevant. Materials and Methods: Participants were exposed to both conditions through social observational learning. Pain perception was assessed by means of a visual analog scale ranging from 0 = no pain to 10 = maximum imaginable pain. State anxiety, empathy, expectancy, and desire for pain relief were also measured at both neutral and emotionally inducing conditions. Results: No effect of relevancy of anxiety for the pain context on any of the pain-related constructs was found. However, participants in the AR condition reported an increased desire for pain relief. Maximizing similarities between observed and experienced pain context did not enhance observational learning effects in the emotionally inducing condition regardless of its relevance, but significant changes were found in comparison to the affectively neutral group. Conclusions: These results could have potentially significant clinical implications suggesting that even though observing painful procedures does not increase pain it could affect medication usage.

  19. Sports Coaching in Risk Society: No Touch! No Trust!

    Science.gov (United States)

    Piper, Heather; Taylor, Bill; Garratt, Dean

    2012-01-01

    This paper is informed by a UK based Economic and Social Research Council funded research project which developed and deployed a case-study approach to issues of touch between children and professionals in schools and childcare. Outcomes from these settings are referred to, but the focus here is shifted to touch in sports coaching and its…

  20. Perception of attachment security in families with children affected by neurological illness

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Langher Viviana

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available This study analyzes inter-family relationships of families with children with neurological problems using Bowlby’s attachment theory as model of reference. The research was conducted in two hospitals in Serbia specialized in neurological diseases: cerebral palsy and epilepsy. It is hypothesized that neurological problems could be associated to a discrepancy of inter-family attachment perceptions. Two groups were selected, a clinical one composed of 25 nuclear families: mother, father and child with a certified diagnosis of either cerebral palsy or epilepsy; and a control group of 25 nuclear families: mother, father and child with no pathology. Kerns, Klepac and Cole’s Security Scale (1996 was used for the investigation, with the addition of two modified version for administration to the parents. Data analysis demonstrated that the clinical group is substantively higher (p=.076 with respect to the discrepancy of attachment perceived by the children and the attribution of meaning that parents give to their child’s attachment perception towards them. Further analyses carried out on parent-child relationships demonstrated a significant difference (p =.017 between the clinical and control groups, with respect to the perception of father-child attachment. We conclude that in the clinical group, there is a discrepancy of attachment perceptions that particularly affects the father-child relationship. It appears that hospitalization and the consequent separation of the nuclear families may influence the formation of secure attachment relationships, in particular between father and child.

  1. The Factors Affecting the Intercultural Sensitivity Perception Level of Psychological Counseling and Guidance Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuncel, Ibrahim; Aricioglu, Ahu

    2018-01-01

    The purpose of this study is to determine the factors affecting the intercultural sensitivity perception levels of Psychological Counseling and Guidance students. This study was conducted in Pamukkale University which is located in the western part of Turkey. Data were gathered from 524 freshmen, sophomore, junior and senior students who are…

  2. Social touch modulates endogenous μ-opioid system activity in humans.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nummenmaa, Lauri; Tuominen, Lauri; Dunbar, Robin; Hirvonen, Jussi; Manninen, Sandra; Arponen, Eveliina; Machin, Anna; Hari, Riitta; Jääskeläinen, Iiro P; Sams, Mikko

    2016-09-01

    In non-human primates, opioid-receptor blockade increases social grooming, and the endogenous opioid system has therefore been hypothesized to support maintenance of long-term relationships in humans as well. Here we tested whether social touch modulates opioidergic activation in humans using in vivo positron emission tomography (PET). Eighteen male participants underwent two PET scans with [11C]carfentanil, a ligand specific to μ-opioid receptors (MOR). During the social touch scan, the participants lay in the scanner while their partners caressed their bodies in a non-sexual fashion. In the baseline scan, participants lay alone in the scanner. Social touch triggered pleasurable sensations and increased MOR availability in the thalamus, striatum, and frontal, cingulate, and insular cortices. Modulation of activity of the opioid system by social touching might provide a neurochemical mechanism reinforcing social bonds between humans. Copyright © 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  3. Touch technologies in primary education

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Davidsen, Jacob

    This paper presents findings from a longitude project on children‘s use of interactive touchscreens in classroom-settings. By exploring and analysing interaction among pairs, children‘s collaborative activities are under study, and it is highlighted how touch technologies invites for a more...

  4. Development of virtual touch panel system for operation at KEK-Electron Linac

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kudou, T.; Kusano, S.; Furukawa, K.; Kamikubota, N.; Satoh, M.

    2004-01-01

    At the KEK Electron Linac, various operator interfaces are employed to keep its stable operation. Among these, the touch-panel system has been used to manipulate each equipment. However, maintenance of the touch-panel system became difficult for various reasons. A new operator interface on X Window was developed as a virtual touch-panel system with an improved operator interface. All the functions which are used in the old system were already ported. It is designed so that a new function can be added flexibly. The architecture of those old and new touch panel systems is described. (author)

  5. Empirical Look at the Factors Affecting Perception of Business Ethics in Turkey

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Vedat Akman

    2011-07-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to explore the influence of gender, age, education, profession and sector choices towards factors affecting business ethics in Turkey. Self-administered questionnaire with scale of 1-5 was used to measure attitudes towards business ethics (1= "strongly agree" to 5="strongly disagree" with reasonable good score on Cronbach's realibility test. With Cronbach alpha of .692 and KMO (Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin Meaure of Sampling Adequecy .746 (which sould be greater than .5 for a satisfactor analysis we proceeded to our analysis successfully.  Choice job, sector, age and gender were significant determinants to factors affecting perception of business ethics but education level was not a significant determinant.

  6. Warm and touching tears: tearful individuals are perceived as warmer because we assume they feel moved and touched.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zickfeld, Janis H; Schubert, Thomas W

    2018-01-31

    Recent work investigated the inter-individual functions of emotional tears in depth. In one study (Van de Ven, N., Meijs, M. H. J., & Vingerhoets, A. (2017). What emotional tears convey: Tearful individuals are seen as warmer, but also as less competent. British Journal of Social Psychology, 56(1), 146-160. Https://doi.org/10.1111/bjso.12162) tearful individuals were rated as warmer, and participants expressed more intentions to approach and help such individuals. Simultaneously, tearful individuals were rated as less competent, and participants expressed less intention to work with the depicted targets. While tearful individuals were perceived as sadder, perceived sadness mediated only the effect on competence, but not on warmth. We argue that tearful individuals might be perceived as warm because they are perceived as feeling moved and touched. We ran a pre-registered extended replication of Van de Ven et al. Results replicate the warmth and helping findings, but not the competence and work effects. The increase in warmth ratings was completely mediated by perceiving feeling moved and touched. Possible functions of feeling moved and touched with regard to emotional tears are discussed.

  7. TouchGrid: Touchpad pointing by recursively mapping taps to smaller display regions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hertzum, Morten; Hornbæk, Kasper

    2005-01-01

    Touchpad devices are widely used but lacking in pointing efficiency. The TouchGrid, an instance of what we term cell cursors, replaces moving the cursor through dragging the finger on a touchpad with tapping in different regions of the touchpad. The touchpad regions are recursively mapped...... to smaller display regions and thereby enable high-precision pointing without requiring high tapping precision. In an experiment, six subjects used the TouchGrid and a standard touchpad across different numbers of targets, distances to targets, and target widths. Whereas standard touchpad operation follows...... Fitts’ law, target selection time with the TouchGrid is a linear function of the required number of taps. The TouchGrid was significantly faster for small targets and for tasks requiring one tap, and marginally faster for two-tap tasks. Error rates tended to be higher with the TouchGrid than...

  8. Implementation of Networking-by-Touch to Small Unit, Network-Enabled Operations

    Science.gov (United States)

    2010-09-01

    consumer electronics and wearable devices etc., which are further exploit later in the chapter. 4 . Touch The body’s sense of touch is a potentially...consoles including Sony’s Playstation 2, Nintendo’s GameCube and Wii, and Microsoft’s X-Box and X-box 360. 56 6. Tactile Displays Embedded in Consumer ...2010 3. REPORT TYPE AND DATES COVERED Master’s Thesis 4 . TITLE AND SUBTITLE Implementation of Networking-by-Touch to Small Unit, Network-Enabled

  9. Professional iPhone Programming with MonoTouch and .NET/C#

    CERN Document Server

    McClure, Wallace B; Dunn, Craig

    2010-01-01

    What .NET C# developers need to enter the hot field of iPhone apps. iPhone applications offer a hot opportunity for developers. Until the open source MonoTouch project, this field was limited to those familiar with Apple's programming languages. Now .NET and C# developers can join the party. This Wrox guide is the first book to cover MonoTouch, preparing developers to take advantage of this lucrative opportunity.: MonoTouch opens the field of iPhone app development to .NET and C# developers for the first time; the Wrox reputation among .NET developers assures them that this guide covers everyt

  10. Force and touch make video games 'serious' for dexterity rehabilitation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Confalonieri, Michele; Guandalini, Giovanni; Da Lio, Mauro; De Cecco, Mariolino

    2012-01-01

    Computerized interfaces are able to represent 3D immersive simulations. Most of them make use of joystick, mouse, gloves, or grasp pressure transducers. Those have the drawback of 'filtering' the user interaction and/or de-locate the touch with respect to the visual stimulus. To overcome this we developed dexterity rehabilitation games on a novel touch interface that measures also force. The system allows dexterity training through 'direct' manipulation of virtual objects in 3D. Two dimensions via the touch screen, the third by the force channel. Tactile feedback is provided with a vibration device mounted on the screen back.

  11. Touch sensors based on planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Seo, Jooyeok; Lee, Chulyeon; Han, Hyemi; Lee, Sooyong; Nam, Sungho; Kim, Youngkyoo; Kim, Hwajeong; Lee, Joon-Hyung; Park, Soo-Young; Kang, Inn-Kyu

    2014-01-01

    We report a tactile touch sensor based on a planar liquid crystal-gated-organic field-effect transistor (LC-g-OFET) structure. The LC-g-OFET touch sensors were fabricated by forming the 10 μm thick LC layer (4-cyano-4 ′ -pentylbiphenyl - 5CB) on top of the 50 nm thick channel layer (poly(3-hexylthiophene) - P3HT) that is coated on the in-plane aligned drain/source/gate electrodes (indium-tin oxide - ITO). As an external physical stimulation to examine the tactile touch performance, a weak nitrogen flow (83.3 μl/s) was employed to stimulate the LC layer of the touch device. The LC-g-OFET device exhibited p-type transistor characteristics with a hole mobility of 1.5 cm 2 /Vs, but no sensing current by the nitrogen flow touch was measured at sufficiently high drain (V D ) and gate (V G ) voltages. However, a clear sensing current signal was detected at lower voltages, which was quite sensitive to the combination of V D and V G . The best voltage combination was V D = −0.2 V and V G = −1 V for the highest ratio of signal currents to base currents (i.e., signal-to-noise ratio). The change in the LC alignment upon the nitrogen flow touch was assigned as the mechanism for the present LC-g-OFET touch sensors

  12. Vibro-Perception of Optical Bio-Inspired Fiber-Skin.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Li, Tao; Zhang, Sheng; Lu, Guo-Wei; Sunami, Yuta

    2018-05-12

    In this research, based on the principle of optical interferometry, the Mach-Zehnder and Optical Phase-locked Loop (OPLL) vibro-perception systems of bio-inspired fiber-skin are designed to mimic the tactile perception of human skin. The fiber-skin is made of the optical fiber embedded in the silicone elastomer. The optical fiber is an instinctive and alternative sensor for tactile perception with high sensitivity and reliability, also low cost and susceptibility to the magnetic interference. The silicone elastomer serves as a substrate with high flexibility and biocompatibility, and the optical fiber core serves as the vibro-perception sensor to detect physical motions like tapping and sliding. According to the experimental results, the designed optical fiber-skin demonstrates the ability to detect the physical motions like tapping and sliding in both the Mach-Zehnder and OPLL vibro-perception systems. For direct contact condition, the OPLL vibro-perception system shows better performance compared with the Mach-Zehnder vibro-perception system. However, the Mach-Zehnder vibro-perception system is preferable to the OPLL system in the indirect contact experiment. In summary, the fiber-skin is validated to have light touch character and excellent repeatability, which is highly-suitable for skin-mimic sensing.

  13. Dance and Music in "Gangnam Style": How Dance Observation Affects Meter Perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lee, Kyung Myun; Barrett, Karen Chan; Kim, Yeonhwa; Lim, Yeoeun; Lee, Kyogu

    2015-01-01

    Dance and music often co-occur as evidenced when viewing choreographed dances or singers moving while performing. This study investigated how the viewing of dance motions shapes sound perception. Previous research has shown that dance reflects the temporal structure of its accompanying music, communicating musical meter (i.e. a hierarchical organization of beats) via coordinated movement patterns that indicate where strong and weak beats occur. Experiments here investigated the effects of dance cues on meter perception, hypothesizing that dance could embody the musical meter, thereby shaping participant reaction times (RTs) to sound targets occurring at different metrical positions.In experiment 1, participants viewed a video with dance choreography indicating 4/4 meter (dance condition) or a series of color changes repeated in sequences of four to indicate 4/4 meter (picture condition). A sound track accompanied these videos and participants reacted to timbre targets at different metrical positions. Participants had the slowest RT's at the strongest beats in the dance condition only. In experiment 2, participants viewed the choreography of the horse-riding dance from Psy's "Gangnam Style" in order to examine how a familiar dance might affect meter perception. Moreover, participants in this experiment were divided into a group with experience dancing this choreography and a group without experience. Results again showed slower RTs to stronger metrical positions and the group with experience demonstrated a more refined perception of metrical hierarchy. Results likely stem from the temporally selective division of attention between auditory and visual domains. This study has implications for understanding: 1) the impact of splitting attention among different sensory modalities, and 2) the impact of embodiment, on perception of musical meter. Viewing dance may interfere with sound processing, particularly at critical metrical positions, but embodied familiarity with

  14. Prospective and concurrent correlates of emotion perception in psychotic disorders: a naturalistic, longitudinal study of neurocognition, affective blunting and avolition.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vaskinn, Anja; Johnsen, Erik; Jørgensen, Hugo A; Kroken, Rune A; Løberg, Else-Marie

    2013-06-01

    This naturalistic study investigated longitudinal and cross-sectional symptomatic and neurocognitive correlates of social cognition indexed by emotion perception. Participants were 31 persons admitted to a psychiatric emergency ward due to acute psychosis. Positive and negative (i.e., affective blunting and avolition) symptoms were assessed at baseline and 12-month follow-up using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale. Participants completed neuropsychological assessments with alternative versions of the Repeatable Battery for the Assessment of Neuropsychological Status at baseline and at 12-month follow-up. Emotion perception was measured using the Face/Voice Emotion Test at 12-month follow-up. Correlational analyses (Spearman's rho) revealed strong and statistically significant associations between neurocognition and emotion perception (baseline r = 0.58, follow-up r = 0.43). Associations between positive symptoms and emotion perception were weak or non-existent (baseline r = 0.13, follow-up r  =  -0.01). Emotion perception was moderately, but not significantly, associated with affective blunting at follow-up (r = 0.33), but not at baseline (r = 0.21). The association with avolition was non-existent (baseline r  =  -0.05, follow-up r = 0.01). This study supports the notion that emotion perception has neurocognitive correlates. The cross-sectional trend level association with affective blunting suggests that the ability to perceive emotions might be related to, but dissociable from the ability to express emotions. © 2013 The Authors. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology © 2013 The Scandinavian Psychological Associations.

  15. Weber's Illusion and Body Shape: Anisotropy of Tactile Size Perception on the Hand

    Science.gov (United States)

    Longo, Matthew R.; Haggard, Patrick

    2011-01-01

    The perceived distance between touches on a single skin surface is larger on regions of high tactile sensitivity than those with lower acuity, an effect known as "Weber's illusion". This illusion suggests that tactile size perception involves a representation of the perceived size of body parts preserving characteristics of the somatosensory…

  16. RISET EFEKTIVITAS INDIHOME TOUCH POINT TERHADAP KELUHAN GANGGUAN DAN PASANG BARU PELANGGAN INDIHOME

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Bilpen Nainggolan

    2017-03-01

    Full Text Available Indonesia Digital Home atau Indihome adalah salah satu produk layanan dari PT Telekomunikasi Indonesia , Tbk. berupa paket layanan komunikasi dan data seperti tel epon rumah ( voice , internet ( Internet on Fiber atau High Speed Internet dan layanan televisi interaktif IPTV ( Internet Protocol TeleVision . Untuk melayani kebutuhan pelanggan Indihome dalam hal penanganan keluhan gangguan maupun permintaan pasang baru, Telkom menyediakan beberapa touch point atau channel agar pelanggan dapat dengan mudah berinte raksi dengan Telkom. Namun, masih terdapat permasalahan yang dihadapi Telkom mengenai efektivitas masing - masing touch point dalam merespon keluhan gangguan maupun permintaan pasang baru . Pengukuran efektivitas touch point belum sempurna dilakukan, sehingga Telkom perlu menyempurnakan touch point mana yan g paling efektif dalam merespon keluhan gangguan dan pasang baru pelanggan Indihome . T ouch point sangat berdampak langsung terhadap keputusan pelanggan untuk membeli dan loyalitas pelanggan. Riset ini mencakup eksplorasi pada pengukuran efektivitas Indihome touch point terhadap keluhan gangguan dan pasang baru pelanggan Indihome melalui beberapa metode sehin gga dapat dipetakan customer experience journey masing - masing touch point , baik kondisi ideal maupun kondisi eksisting , serta dapat teridentifikasi gap customer experience journey masing - masing touch point antara kondisi ideal dengan kondisi eksisting.

  17. Developing an Assessment (Tool) for Touch Screen Devices.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Danial-Saad, Alexandra; Chiari, Lorenzo

    2017-01-01

    Touch screen devices have become prevalent in our lives. Assistive technology experts working with people with disabilities face difficulty in understanding and assessing the problems experienced by individuals with disabilities in operating touch screen devices. This paper presents the processes of collecting and creating the required knowledge needed for assessing the user's skills for operating various touch screen devices, in order to develop an application for assessing the user's abilities and limitations. A six step procedure was used to collect and validate the required knowledge for the assessment from a multidisciplinary team. To determine the agreement levels between the experts, content validity was calculated. To test correlation between the experts from the different disciplines, a comparison was made between the discipline groups and their choice of specific skills/measurements. The final number of domains and skills/measurements was 15 domains and 50 skills/measurements. The result of Cronbach's α test for the final assessment questionnaire (50 skills/measurements) was 0.94, which indicates a high degree of reliability. The results of Kruskal-Wallis test showed the lack of any significant difference between agreements of the clinicians and the technicians groups, but significant differences were found between the educators and the clinicians groups. Each of the skills appearing in the final questionnaire was illustrated in a flowchart in preparation for developing the assessment (tool) for using touch screen devices.

  18. The meaning of the virtual Midas touch: an ERP study in economic decision making.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Spapé, Michiel M; Hoggan, Eve E; Jacucci, Giulio; Ravaja, Niklas

    2015-03-01

    The Midas touch refers to the altruistic effects of a brief touch. Though these effects have often been replicated, they remain poorly understood. We investigate the psychophysiology of the effect using remotely transmitted, precisely timed, tactile messages in an economic decision-making game called Ultimatum. Participants were more likely to accept offers after receiving a remotely transmitted touch. Furthermore, we found distinct effects of touch on event-related potentials evoked by (a) feedback regarding accepted and rejected offers, (b) decision cues related to proposals, and (c) the haptic and auditory cues themselves. In each case, a late positive effect of touch was observed and related to the P3. Given the role of the P3 in memory-related functions, the results indicate an indirect relationship between touch and generosity that relies on memory. This hypothesis was further tested and confirmed in the positive effects of touch on later proposals. © 2014 Society for Psychophysiological Research.

  19. Explore the interactive design of touch interface Webpage

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    JIANG Zhen

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available With the arrival of the era of mobile touch,website HTML,CSS and JavaScript building have been changed.Especially the functional development of hypertext markup language HTML5 and touch interface not only enhances the speed of the Website,but also creates amazing user experiences.Therefore,now Webpage design focus on the transmission of information at the same time,more concerns itself about the personalized and interactive design of users,including visual experience,browsing expect and psychological interaction,etc.

  20. U Can Touch This: How Tablets Can Be Used to Study Cognitive Development.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Semmelmann, Kilian; Nordt, Marisa; Sommer, Katharina; Röhnke, Rebecka; Mount, Luzie; Prüfer, Helen; Terwiel, Sophia; Meissner, Tobias W; Koldewyn, Kami; Weigelt, Sarah

    2016-01-01

    New technological devices, particularly those with touch screens, have become virtually omnipresent over the last decade. Practically from birth, children are now surrounded by smart phones and tablets. Despite being our constant companions, little is known about whether these tools can be used not only for entertainment, but also to collect reliable scientific data. Tablets may prove particularly useful for collecting behavioral data from those children (1-10 years), who are, for the most part, too old for studies based on looking times and too young for classical psychophysical testing. Here, we analyzed data from six studies that utilized touch screen tablets to deliver experimental paradigms in developmental psychology. In studies 1 and 2, we employed a simple sorting and recall task with children from the ages of 2-8. Study 3 (ages 9 and 10) extended these tasks by increasing the difficulty of the stimuli and adding a staircase-based perception task. A visual search paradigm was used in study 4 (ages 2-5), while 1- to 3-year-olds were presented with an extinction learning task in study 5. In study 6, we used a simple visuo-spatial paradigm to obtain more details about the distribution of reaction times on touch screens over all ages. We collected data from adult participants in each study as well, for comparison purposes. We analyzed these data sets in regard to four metrics: self-reported tablet usage, completeness of data, accuracy of responses and response times. In sum, we found that children from the age of two onwards are very capable of interacting with tablets, are able to understand the respective tasks and are able to use tablets to register their answers accordingly. Results from all studies reiterated the advantages of data collection through tablets: ease of use, high portability, low-cost, and high levels of engagement for children. We illustrate the great potential of conducting psychological studies in young children using tablets, and also

  1. The prevalence of visual hallucinations in non-affective psychosis, and the role of perception and attention.

    Science.gov (United States)

    van Ommen, M M; van Beilen, M; Cornelissen, F W; Smid, H G O M; Knegtering, H; Aleman, A; van Laar, T

    2016-06-01

    Little is known about visual hallucinations (VH) in psychosis. We investigated the prevalence and the role of bottom-up and top-down processing in VH. The prevailing view is that VH are probably related to altered top-down processing, rather than to distorted bottom-up processing. Conversely, VH in Parkinson's disease are associated with impaired visual perception and attention, as proposed by the Perception and Attention Deficit (PAD) model. Auditory hallucinations (AH) in psychosis, however, are thought to be related to increased attention. Our retrospective database study included 1119 patients with non-affective psychosis and 586 controls. The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences established the VH rate. Scores on visual perception tests [Degraded Facial Affect Recognition (DFAR), Benton Facial Recognition Task] and attention tests [Response Set-shifting Task, Continuous Performance Test-HQ (CPT-HQ)] were compared between 75 VH patients, 706 non-VH patients and 485 non-VH controls. The lifetime VH rate was 37%. The patient groups performed similarly on cognitive tasks; both groups showed worse perception (DFAR) than controls. Non-VH patients showed worse attention (CPT-HQ) than controls, whereas VH patients did not perform differently. We did not find significant VH-related impairments in bottom-up processing or direct top-down alterations. However, the results suggest a relatively spared attentional performance in VH patients, whereas face perception and processing speed were equally impaired in both patient groups relative to controls. This would match better with the increased attention hypothesis than with the PAD model. Our finding that VH frequently co-occur with AH may support an increased attention-induced 'hallucination proneness'.

  2. Therapeutic touch for nausea in breast cancer patients receiving chemotherapy: Composing a treatment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vanaki, Zohreh; Matourypour, Pegah; Gholami, Roya; Zare, Zahra; Mehrzad, Valiolah; Dehghan, Mojtaba

    2016-02-01

    Therapeutic touch (TT) is independent nursing intervention which is effective on nausea induced by chemotherapy but technique, steps and variables affected by this therapy are not yet well known. The aim of this study was to elicit descriptions of how TT is used with cancer patients, providing a basis for the systematic use and evaluation of TT with patients. In this research, 108 patients were examined with intentional sampling and random allocation in 3 groups (control, placebo and intervention) in 2013 (each group 36). Intervention received therapeutic touch (touching of first energy layer) and demographic form, visual analog scale (VAS) for intensity of nausea, check list for duration and times of nausea in the morning, noon, afternoon and night at acute phase were used. Data were analyzed by Kruskal Wallis, χ(2) and analysis of variance (ANOVA). Duration, frequency and intensity of nausea were significantly lower in the test group (P < 0.001, P < 0.001 and P < 0.001). The mean duration of intervention (whole process) was 21.38 min [SD 6.04]. In 69.4% of women there was a need for re-intervention after reassessment phase. Results of this randomized control trial showed that TT is effective on duration, times and intensity of nausea; therefore, TT can be used as an alternative method for patients who are willing to use this technique. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  3. Touch in Computer-Mediated Environments: An Analysis of Online Shoppers' Touch-Interface User Experiences

    Science.gov (United States)

    Chung, Sorim

    2016-01-01

    Over the past few years, one of the most fundamental changes in current computer-mediated environments has been input devices, moving from mouse devices to touch interfaces. However, most studies of online retailing have not considered device environments as retail cues that could influence users' shopping behavior. In this research, I examine the…

  4. Brave NUI World Designing Natural User Interfaces for Touch and Gesture

    CERN Document Server

    Wigdor, Daniel

    2011-01-01

    Touch and gestural devices have been hailed as next evolutionary step in human-computer interaction. As software companies struggle to catch up with one another in terms of developing the next great touch-based interface, designers are charged with the daunting task of keeping up with the advances in new technology and this new aspect to user experience design. Product and interaction designers, developers and managers are already well versed in UI design, but touch-based interfaces have added a new level of complexity.

  5. Understanding and Creating Accessible Touch Screen Interactions for Blind People

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kane, Shaun K.

    2011-01-01

    Using touch screens presents a number of usability and accessibility challenges for blind people. Most touch screen-based user interfaces are optimized for visual interaction, and are therefore difficult or impossible to use without vision. This dissertation presents an approach to redesigning gesture-based user interfaces to enable blind people…

  6. Instant website touch integration

    CERN Document Server

    Dickson, Alexander

    2013-01-01

    This book gives you a quick theoretical knowledge base before moving on to focus on task-based projects designed to keep you on your toes.This book is for web developers who have a working knowledge of JavaScript and the traditional way of writing web applications intended to be mouse-driven. A touch-enabled device is definitely recommended as well as a sense of adventure.

  7. Effect of Therapeutic Touch in Patients with Cancer: a Literature Review.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tabatabaee, Amir; Tafreshi, Mansoureh Zagheri; Rassouli, Maryam; Aledavood, Seyed Amir; AlaviMajd, Hamid; Farahmand, Seyed Kazem

    2016-04-01

    The use of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) techniques has been growing. The National Center for Complementary and Alternative Medicine places therapeutic touch (TT) into the category of bio field energy. This literature review is aimed at critically evaluating the data from clinical trials examining the clinical efficacy of therapeutic touch as a supportive care modality in adult patients with cancer. Electronic databases (PubMed, Scopus, Scholar Google, and Science Direct) were searched from the year 1990 to 2015 to locate potentially relevant peer-reviewed articles using the key words therapeutic touch, touch therapy, neoplasm, cancer, and CAM. Additionally, relevant journals and references of all the located articles were manually searched for other potentially relevant studies. The number of 334 articles was found on the basis of the key words, of which 17 articles related to the clinical trial were examined in accordance with the objectives of the study. A total of 6 articles were in the final dataset in which several examples of the positive effects of healing touch on pain, nausea, anxiety and fatigue, and life quality and also on biochemical parameters were observed. Based on the results of this study, an affirmation can be made regarding the use of TT, as a non-invasive intervention for improving the health status in patients with cancer. Moreover, therapeutic touch was proved to be a useful strategy for adult patients with cancer.

  8. A Kinect-Based Segmentation of Touching-Pigs for Real-Time Monitoring

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miso Ju

    2018-05-01

    Full Text Available Segmenting touching-pigs in real-time is an important issue for surveillance cameras intended for the 24-h tracking of individual pigs. However, methods to do so have not yet been reported. We particularly focus on the segmentation of touching-pigs in a crowded pig room with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor. We reduce the execution time by combining object detection techniques based on a convolutional neural network (CNN with image processing techniques instead of applying time-consuming operations, such as optimization-based segmentation. We first apply the fastest CNN-based object detection technique (i.e., You Only Look Once, YOLO to solve the separation problem for touching-pigs. If the quality of the YOLO output is not satisfied, then we try to find the possible boundary line between the touching-pigs by analyzing the shape. Our experimental results show that this method is effective to separate touching-pigs in terms of both accuracy (i.e., 91.96% and execution time (i.e., real-time execution, even with low-contrast images obtained using a Kinect depth sensor.

  9. Images of Famous People in Political Advertising: Youth Perceptions and Position

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Liubov I. Ryumshina

    2013-01-01

    Full Text Available The article touches upon the issues of youth awareness about the recent political events and its attitude to the political advertising, examines youth perception and position in respect of famous people, as well as candidates participation in political advertising on the example of the last presidential campaign. The study describes the most attractive elements of the political advertising for youth

  10. Ozone Differentially Affects Perception of Plant Volatiles in Western Honey Bees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Dötterl, Stefan; Vater, Marina; Rupp, Thomas; Held, Andreas

    2016-06-01

    Floral scents play a key role in mediating plant-pollinator interactions. Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) emitted by flowers are used by flower visitors as olfactory cues to locate flowers, both from a distance and at close range. More recently it has been demonstrated that reactive molecules such as ozone can modify or degrade VOCs, and this may impair the communication between plants and their pollinators. However, it is not known whether such reactive molecules also may affect the olfactory system of pollinators, and thus not only influence signal transmission but perception of the signal. In this study, we used electroantennographic measurements to determine the effect of increased levels of ozone on antennal responses in western honey bees (Apis mellifera L.). Linalool and 2-phenylethanol, both known to be involved in location of flowers by the bees, and (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, a widespread green leaf volatile also detected by bees, were used. The results showed that ozone affected antennal responses to the different substances differently. Ozone decreased antennal responses to (Z)-3-hexenyl acetate, whereas responses to linalool and 2-phenylethanol were not influenced by ozone. Overall, the study does not provide evidence that pollination by honey bees is impaired by damage in the olfactory system of the bees caused by increased levels of ozone, at least when linalool and 2-phenylethanol are the attractive signals. However, the results also suggest that ozone can change the overall perception of an odor blend. This might have negative effects in pollination systems and other organismic interactions mediated by specific ratios of compounds.

  11. Young Children Learning from Touch Screens: Taking a Wider View

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Silvia Lovato

    2016-07-01

    Full Text Available Touch screen devices such as smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous in the lives of American children. These devices permit very young children to engage interactively in an intuitive fashion with actions as simple as touching, swiping and pinching. Yet, we know little about the role these devices play in very young children’s lives or their impact on early learning and development. Here we focus on two areas in which existing research sheds some light on these issues with children under three years of age. The first measures transfer of learning, or how well children use information learned from screens to reason about events off-screen, using object retrieval and word learning tasks. The second measures the impact of interactive screens on parent-child interactions and story comprehension during reading time. More research is required to clarify the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of touch screens for infants and very young children, especially research focused on capabilities unique to touch screens and on the social and cultural contexts in which young children use them.

  12. Young Children Learning from Touch Screens: Taking a Wider View.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lovato, Silvia B; Waxman, Sandra R

    2016-01-01

    Touch screen devices such as smartphones and tablets are now ubiquitous in the lives of American children. These devices permit very young children to engage interactively in an intuitive fashion with actions as simple as touching, swiping and pinching. Yet, we know little about the role these devices play in very young children's lives or their impact on early learning and development. Here we focus on two areas in which existing research sheds some light on these issues with children under 3 years of age. The first measures transfer of learning, or how well children use information learned from screens to reason about events off-screen, using object retrieval and word learning tasks. The second measures the impact of interactive screens on parent-child interactions and story comprehension during reading time. More research is required to clarify the pedagogical potential and pitfalls of touch screens for infants and very young children, especially research focused on capabilities unique to touch screens and on the social and cultural contexts in which young children use them.

  13. The effect of relationship status on communicating emotions through touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thompson, Erin H; Hampton, James A

    2011-02-01

    Research into emotional communication to date has largely focused on facial and vocal expressions. In contrast, recent studies by Hertenstein, Keltner, App, Bulleit, and Jaskolka (2006) and Hertenstein, Holmes, McCullough, and Keltner (2009) exploring nonverbal communication of emotion discovered that people could identify anger, disgust, fear, gratitude, happiness, love, sadness and sympathy from the experience of being touched on either the arm or body by a stranger, without seeing the touch. The study showed that strangers were unable to communicate the self-focused emotions embarrassment, envy and pride, or the universal emotion surprise. Literature relating to touch indicates that the interpretation of a tactile experience is significantly influenced by the relationship between the touchers (Coan, Schaefer, & Davidson, 2006). The present study compared the ability of romantic couples and strangers to communicate emotions solely via touch. Results showed that both strangers and romantic couples were able to communicate universal and prosocial emotions, whereas only romantic couples were able to communicate the self-focused emotions envy and pride. © 2010 Psychology Press, an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business

  14. Enhancing the Entertainment Experience of Blind and Low-Vision Theatregoers through Touch Tours

    Science.gov (United States)

    Udo, J. P.; Fels, D. I.

    2010-01-01

    In this paper we demonstrate how universal design theory and the research available on museum-based touch tours can be used to develop a touch tour for blind and low-vision theatregoers. We discuss these theoretical and practical approaches with reference to data collected and experience gained from the creation and execution of a touch tour for…

  15. Proximity and physical navigation in collaborative work with a multi-touch wall-display

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Jakobsen, Mikkel Rønne; Hornbæk, Kasper

    2012-01-01

    Multi-touch, wall-sized displays afford new forms of collaboration. Yet, most data on collaboration with multi-touch displays come from tabletop settings, where users often sit and where space is a limited resource. We study how two-person groups navigate in relation to a 2.8m!1.2m multi-touch di......-touch display with 24.8 megapixels and to each other when solving a sensemaking task on a document collection. The results show that users physically navigate to shift fluently among different parts of the display and between parallel and joint group work....

  16. Is the game of touch rugby safe for female adolescents? | Vijam ...

    African Journals Online (AJOL)

    The mechanisms producing the musculoskeletal injuries were rapid, rotational movement (33.3%) and poor landing (26.6%) (p<0.05). Female adolescent touch rugby players experience a high prevalence of acute musculoskeletal knee and ankle injuries. Keywords: Touch rugby, musculoskeletal injury, female adolescents.

  17. Automated separation of touching grains in digital images of thin sections

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    van den Berg, E.H.; Meesters, A.G.C.A.; Kenter, J.A.M.; Schlager, W.

    2002-01-01

    The determination of textural properties of granular material with image analysis is generally troubled by the fact that touching grain sections merge into single features. Without separation of these touching grain sections, the textural properties derived from the images contain substantial bias.

  18. Integration of advanced technologies to enhance problem-based learning over distance: Project TOUCH.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jacobs, Joshua; Caudell, Thomas; Wilks, David; Keep, Marcus F; Mitchell, Steven; Buchanan, Holly; Saland, Linda; Rosenheimer, Julie; Lozanoff, Beth K; Lozanoff, Scott; Saiki, Stanley; Alverson, Dale

    2003-01-01

    Distance education delivery has increased dramatically in recent years as a result of the rapid advancement of communication technology. The National Computational Science Alliance's Access Grid represents a significant advancement in communication technology with potential for distance medical education. The purpose of this study is to provide an overview of the TOUCH project (Telehealth Outreach for Unified Community Health; http://hsc.unm.edu/touch) with special emphasis on the process of problem-based learning case development for distribution over the Access Grid. The objective of the TOUCH project is to use emerging Internet-based technology to overcome geographic barriers for delivery of tutorial sessions to medical students pursuing rotations at remote sites. The TOUCH project also is aimed at developing a patient simulation engine and an immersive virtual reality environment to achieve a realistic health care scenario enhancing the learning experience. A traumatic head injury case is developed and distributed over the Access Grid as a demonstration of the TOUCH system. Project TOUCH serves as an example of a computer-based learning system for developing and implementing problem-based learning cases within the medical curriculum, but this system should be easily applied to other educational environments and disciplines involving functional and clinical anatomy. Future phases will explore PC versions of the TOUCH cases for increased distribution. Copyright 2003 Wiley-Liss, Inc.

  19. "Touching" workflow management at runtime

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Claessen, J.E.W.; Reijers, H.A.

    2014-01-01

    New technologies are being introduced into our lives on a almost daily basis. Touch technology is a recent one which changes the way we interact with devices. It influences the work environment a user works in: Instead of only a desk with a PC, the environment is enriched with devices like a

  20. Integrating 2D Mouse Emulation with 3D Manipulation for Visualizations on a Multi-Touch Table

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Vlaming, Luc; Collins, Christopher; Hancock, Mark; Nacenta, Miguel; Isenberg, Tobias; Carpendale, Sheelagh

    2010-01-01

    We present the Rizzo, a multi-touch virtual mouse that has been designed to provide the fine grained interaction for information visualization on a multi-touch table. Our solution enables touch interaction for existing mouse-based visualizations. Previously, this transition to a multi-touch

  1. Does Organizational Culture Affect the Perception Towards the Barriers of the Glass Ceiling?

    OpenAIRE

    Muruatetu, Ndunge

    2011-01-01

    Purpose : The purpose of this study was to examine the existence of the glass ceilling in Africa; and to investigate whether organizational culture affected the perception towards the barriers of the glass ceiling. Design/Methodology : This research used a quatitative approach, based on a descriptive design. Data was gathered from surveys issued to employees at a Non-Governmental organization; with the participants based in the Sierra Leone and Democratic Republic of Congo offices. Fi...

  2. Factors Affecting Customers’ Satisfaction and Perception: Case Study of Islamic Banks’Service Quality

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Yayah Cheriyah

    2010-06-01

    Full Text Available This study aims to investigate the perception and expectation of the Islamic bank customers on the banks’ service quality, and how these factors affect their satisfaction and their intention to buy and to use the Islamic banks products and services.This finding implies that the Islamic banks should have pay more attention to their service quality since it would have a positif influence on customer satisfaction and purchase intention.

  3. Feasibility of Training and Delivering Compassionate Touch in Long-Term Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Han, Areum; Kunik, Mark E

    2017-09-19

    Limited evidence supports the use of therapeutic touch for people with dementia (PWD). Interventions incorporating a person-centered approach to touch delivered by staff may benefit PWD and staff in long-term care settings. The Compassionate Touch ® (CT) program provides skilled human touch and a compassionate presence following a person-centered approach and touch protocol. The purpose of this study was to determine the feasibility of training and delivering CT. An online survey was sent via email to 112 staff who attended the CT coach training. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis were used to analyze closed-and open-ended questions of the survey. Twenty-four staff members completed the survey and reported positive perspectives about the training, use of the program, and benefits for PWD and themselves. Five themes emerged, including (1) benefits for residents, (2) challenges in using CT, (3) when to use CT, (4) training staff, and (5) needed support. Preliminary findings from the present research show potential benefits of using the CT program for residents, challenges participants faced in using the program and training other staff, and support needed to overcome these challenges. Programs such as CT may benefit PWD and staff in residential care settings.

  4. Interactions of touch feedback with muscle vibration and galvanic vestibular stimulation in the control of trunk posture

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Maaswinkel, E.; Veeger, H.E.J.; van Dieen, J.H.

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the effect of touch on trunk sway in a seated position. Two touch conditions were included: touching an object with the index finger of the right hand (hand-touch) and maintaining contact with an object at the level of the spine of T10 on the mid back (back-touch). In both

  5. Detecting and Classifying Human Touches in a Social Robot Through Acoustic Sensing and Machine Learning.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Alonso-Martín, Fernando; Gamboa-Montero, Juan José; Castillo, José Carlos; Castro-González, Álvaro; Salichs, Miguel Ángel

    2017-05-16

    An important aspect in Human-Robot Interaction is responding to different kinds of touch stimuli. To date, several technologies have been explored to determine how a touch is perceived by a social robot, usually placing a large number of sensors throughout the robot's shell. In this work, we introduce a novel approach, where the audio acquired from contact microphones located in the robot's shell is processed using machine learning techniques to distinguish between different types of touches. The system is able to determine when the robot is touched (touch detection), and to ascertain the kind of touch performed among a set of possibilities: stroke , tap , slap , and tickle (touch classification). This proposal is cost-effective since just a few microphones are able to cover the whole robot's shell since a single microphone is enough to cover each solid part of the robot. Besides, it is easy to install and configure as it just requires a contact surface to attach the microphone to the robot's shell and plug it into the robot's computer. Results show the high accuracy scores in touch gesture recognition. The testing phase revealed that Logistic Model Trees achieved the best performance, with an F -score of 0.81. The dataset was built with information from 25 participants performing a total of 1981 touch gestures.

  6. Embodied terror management: interpersonal touch alleviates existential concerns among individuals with low self-esteem.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koole, Sander L; Tjew A Sin, Mandy; Schneider, Iris K

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with low (rather than high) self-esteem often struggle with existential concerns. In the present research, we examined whether these existential concerns may be alleviated by seemingly trivial experiences of both real and simulated interpersonal touch. A brief touch on the shoulder by a female experimenter led individuals with low self-esteem to experience less death anxiety (Study 1) and more social connectedness after a death reminder (Study 2). Reminding individuals with low self-esteem of death increased their desire for touch, as indicated by higher value estimates of a teddy bear, a toy animal that simulates interpersonal touch (Study 3). Finally, holding a teddy bear (vs. a cardboard box) led individuals with low self-esteem to respond to a death reminder with less defensive ethnocentrism (Study 4). Individuals with high self-esteem were unaffected by touch (Studies 1-4). These findings highlight the existential significance of embodied touch experiences, particularly for individuals with low self-esteem.

  7. Light and heavy touch reduces postural sway and modifies axial tone in Parkinson’s disease

    Science.gov (United States)

    Franzén, Erika; Paquette, Caroline; Gurfinkel, Victor; Horak, Fay

    2014-01-01

    Background Light touch with a stable object reduces postural sway by increasing axial postural tone in healthy subjects. However, it is unknown whether subjects with Parkinson’s disease (PD), who have more postural sway and higher axial postural tone than healthy subjects, can benefit from haptic touch. Objective To investigate the effect of light and heavy touch on postural stability and hip tone in subjects with PD. Methods Fourteen subjects with mid-stage PD, and 14 healthy control subjects were evaluated during quiet standing with eyes closed with their arms: 1) crossed, 2) lightly touching a fixed rigid bar in front of them and 3) firmly gripping the bar. Postural sway was measured with a forceplate and axial hip tone was quantified using a unique device that measures the resistance of the hips to yaw rotation while maintaining active stance. Results Subjects with PD significantly decreased their postural sway with light or heavy touch (ptouch, hip tone was larger in PD subjects. With touch, however, tone values were similar in both groups. This change in hip tone with touch was highly correlated with the initial amount of tone (PD: r=− 0.72 to −0.95 and controls: r=−0.74 to−0.85). Conclusions We showed, for the first time, that subjects with PD benefit from touch similarly to control subjects and that despite higher axial postural tone, PD subjects are able to modulate their tone with touch. Future studies should investigate the complex relationship between touch and postural tone. PMID:22415944

  8. The perception of materials through oral sensation.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Howes, Philip D; Wongsriruksa, Supinya; Laughlin, Zoe; Witchel, Harry J; Miodownik, Mark

    2014-01-01

    This paper presents the results of a multimodal study of oral perception conducted with a set of material samples made from metals, polymers and woods, in which both the somatosensory and taste factors were examined. A multidimensional scaling analysis coupled with subjective attribute ratings was performed to assess these factors both qualitatively and quantitatively. The perceptual somatosensory factors of warmth, hardness and roughness dominated over the basic taste factors, and roughness was observed to be a less significant sensation compared to touch-only experiments. The perceptual somatosensory ratings were compared directly with physical property data in order to assess the correlation between the perceived properties and measured physical properties. In each case, a strong correlation was observed, suggesting that physical properties may be useful in industrial design for predicting oral perception.

  9. K fenomenológii dotýkania a filozofii lásky (To phenomenology of touching and philosophy of love

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Miloš Kriššák

    2009-03-01

    Full Text Available A starting point of an essay is Merleau-Ponty’s ontology of corporality. Merleau-Ponty reformulates a problem of erotic perception which cannot be founded in intentionality of concioussness but in that of body. Later, in search for the ontology of corporality, he founds that we are open to the world as corporeal beings thanks to the order of Visibility, which is the essence of corporality. Second part of the essay challenges Merleau-Ponty’s idea of reversibility of seeing and touching. Under Lacanian consideration of ontogenesis of subjectivity, it is shown that the primordial world before visible and invisible is haptic world of corporeal being. Consecutively, this fact is drawn back to the idea of erotic perception as a relation to non-visible haptic body of the other that happens in and returns back to a realm before constitution of any meaning.

  10. Physical fitness level affects perception of chronic stress in military trainees.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tuch, Carolin; Teubel, Thomas; La Marca, Roberto; Roos, Lilian; Annen, Hubert; Wyss, Thomas

    2017-12-01

    This study investigated whether physical fitness affects the perception of chronic stress in military trainees while controlling for established factors influencing stress perception. The sample consisted of 273 men (20.23 ± 1.12 years, 73.56 ± 10.52 kg, 1.78 ± 0.06 m). Physical fitness was measured by progressive endurance run (maximum oxygen uptake; VO 2 max), standing long jump, seated shot put, trunk muscle strength, and one leg standing test. Perceived stress was measured using the Perceived Stress Questionnaire in Weeks 1 and 11 of basic military training (BMT). VO 2 max and four influencing variables (perceived stress in Week 1, neuroticism, transformational leadership style, and education level) explained 44.44% of the variance of the increase in perceived stress during 10 weeks of BMT (R 2  = 0.444, F = 23.334, p good aerobic fitness on the varied level of perceived stress. We conclude that it is advisable to provide conscripts with a specific endurance training program prior to BMT for stress prevention reasons. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

  11. Gesture Recognition for Educational Games: Magic Touch Math

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kye, Neo Wen; Mustapha, Aida; Azah Samsudin, Noor

    2017-08-01

    Children nowadays are having problem learning and understanding basic mathematical operations because they are not interested in studying or learning mathematics. This project proposes an educational game called Magic Touch Math that focuses on basic mathematical operations targeted to children between the age of three to five years old using gesture recognition to interact with the game. Magic Touch Math was developed in accordance to the Game Development Life Cycle (GDLC) methodology. The prototype developed has helped children to learn basic mathematical operations via intuitive gestures. It is hoped that the application is able to get the children motivated and interested in mathematics.

  12. Households Perceptions on Factors Affecting Resilience towards Natural Disasters in Indonesia

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Viverita Viverita

    2014-05-01

    Full Text Available Normal 0 false false false IN X-NONE X-NONE Most areas in Indonesia are prone to natural disasters. Learning the lessons from the Aceh Tsunami in 2004, areas with high risks of natural disasters are in the process of preparing themselves for such an unexpected event, by increasing their resilience. The objective of this study is to shed more lights on factors affecting the resilience from two sources namely, existing literatures and the application of disaster management in four disaster-prone areas in Indonesia -Padang, Sleman, Cilacap, and Palu. To enrich our analysis, we collect data from the field to compare the preparedness and to get insights on people’s perceptions towards the factors of resilience in those areas.We employ IDI and FGD to identify the factors of resilience and the preparedness in the areas investigated. Thereafter, a preliminary survey is conducted to identify people’s perceptions towards the aspects of resilience in the areas. Results from the survey conducted to 800 households in Padang and Cilacap indicates that from the social aspect, community’s value cohesiveness is one of important factor affecting their resilience towards natural disaster. In addition, when disaster occurred, they heavily relied on the help of debt or selling some of their assets, as well as used cash in hand as emergency funds. In general, respondents in all sample cities are able to re-start their economic activities as soon as two weeks after the event of disaster. In addition, the survey found that most of respondents were aware that the government has programs to educate people on the disaster mitigation.

  13. Diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis: a comparative analysis

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    WU Na

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available ObjectiveTo compare the diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis. MethodsA total of 962 patients who visited Department of Hepatology, The First Hospital of Jilin University from September 2013 to March 2014 were enrolled. FibroScan and FibroTouch were performed among these patients. Thirty-three cases underwent liver biopsy, and Aspartate aminotransferase-to-platelet ratio index (APRI was calculated in 66 patients (chronic hepatitis B (CHB: 53 cases; chronic hepatitis C (CHC: 13 cases. Spearman rank correlation test was used to analyze the correlation between the results measured by FibroScan and FibroTouch. The diagnostic values of FibroScan and FibroTouch for liver fibrosis were analyzed and compared by receiver operating characteristic (ROC curve. ResultsThe analysis of liver stiffness measured by FibroScan and FibroTouch among all patients showed that the correlation coefficient between FibroScan and FibroTouch was 0.866 (P<0.05, n=962. FibroScan and FibroTouch were significantly correlated with APRI (r=0.58 and 0.63, P<0.05, n=66 and pathological stage determined by liver biopsy (r=0.67 and 0.74, P<0.05, n=33. Among patients with CHB, for the diagnosis of APRI ≥2 (liver cirrhosis, the areas under the ROC curve (AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.761 vs 0.728 (P=0.61; among patients with CHC, for the diagnosis of APRI ≥1 (liver cirrhosis, the AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.810 vs 0.893 (P=0.38. For pathological stages ≥S1, ≥S2, ≥S3, and ≥S4, the AUCs of FibroScan and FibroTouch were 0.830 vs 0.889 (P=0.15, 0.841 vs 0.835 (P=0.90, 0.888 vs 0.920 (P=0.43, and 0.964 vs 0.979 (P=0.45, respectively. ConclusionFibroScan and FibroTouch have comparable diagnostic values for liver fibrosis. However, the number of cases undergoing liver biopsy in this study was relatively small, and investigation of more cases is needed to make further confirmation.

  14. Designing social play through interpersonal touch

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Padfield, Nicolas; Löwgren, Jonas; Hobye, Mads

    2013-01-01

    We present five design cases as an annotated portfolio, exploring ways to design for intimate, interpersonal touch and social intimacy in interaction design. Five key qualities are elicited from the cases, including novel connotations sparking curiosity; providing an excuse to interact; unfolding...

  15. Experiences with Interactive Multi-touch Tables

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Fikkert, F.W.; Hakvoort, M.; Hakvoort, M.C.; van der Vet, P.E.; Nijholt, Antinus; Nijholt, A.; Reidsma, D.; Reidsma, Dennis; Hondorp, G.H.W.

    2009-01-01

    Interactive multi-touch tables can be a powerful means of communication for collaborative work as well as an engaging environment for competition. Through enticing gameplay we have evaluated user experience on competitive gameplay, collaborative work and musical expression. In addition, we report on

  16. Design and analysis of a piezoelectric material based touch screen with additional pressure and its acceleration measurement functions

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Chu, Xiang-Cheng; Liu, Jia-Yi; Gao, Ren-Long; Chang, Jie; Li, Long-Tu

    2013-01-01

    Touch screens are becoming more and more prevalent in everyday environments due to their convenience and humanized operation. In this paper, a piezoelectric material based touch screen is developed and investigated. Piezoelectric ceramics arrayed under the touch panel at the edges or corners are used as tactile sensors to measure the touch positioning point similarly to conventional touch screens. However, additional touch pressure and its acceleration performance can also be obtained to obtain a higher-level human–machine interface. The piezoelectric ceramics can also be added to a traditional touch screen structure, or they can be used independently to construct a novel touch screen with a high light transmittance approach to a transparent glass. The piezoelectric ceramics were processed from PZT piezoelectric ceramic powder into a round or rectangular shape. According to the varied touch position and physical press strength of a finger, or even a gloved hand or fingernail, the piezoelectric tactile sensors will have different output voltage responses. By calculating the ratio of different piezoelectric tactile sensors’ responses and summing up all piezoelectric tactile sensors’ output voltages, the touch point position, touch pressure and touch force acceleration can be detected. A prototype of such a touch screen is manufactured and its position accuracy, touch pressure and response speed are measured in detail. The experimental results show that the prototype has many advantages such as high light transmittance, low energy cost and high durability. (paper)

  17. Peers and teachers as sources of relatedness perceptions, motivation, and affective responses in physical education.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cox, Anne; Duncheon, Nicole; McDavid, Lindley

    2009-12-01

    Research has demonstrated the importance of relatedness perceptions to self-determined motivation in physical education. Therefore, studies have begun to examine the social factors contributing to feelings of relatedness. The purpose of this study was to examine teacher (perceived emotional support) and peer (acceptance, friendship quality) relationship variables to feelings of relatedness, motivation, and affective responses in junior high physical education students (N = 411). Results revealed that perceived relatedness mediated the relationship between variables and self-determined motivation and related directly to the amount of enjoyment and worry students experienced. These findings demonstrate that relationships with both teachers and peers are important for students' relatedness perceptions, motivation, enjoyment, and worry in physical education.

  18. Design of High-Precision Infrared Multi-Touch Screen Based on the EFM32

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Zhong XIAOLING

    2014-07-01

    Full Text Available Due to the low accuracy of traditional infrared multi-touch screen, it’s difficult to ascertain the touch point. Putting forward a design scheme based on ARM Cortex-M3 kernel EFM32 processor of high precision infrared multi-touch screen. Using tracking scanning area algorithm after accessed electricity for the first time to scan, it greatly improved the scanning efficiency and response speed. Based on the infrared characteristic difference, putting forward a data fitting algorithm, employing the subtraction relationship between the covering area and sampling value to curve fitting, concluding the infrared sampling value of subtraction characteristic curve, establishing a sampling value differential data tables, at last ensuring the precise location of touch point. Besides, practices have proved that the accuracy of the infrared touch screen can up to 0.5 mm. The design uses standard USB port which connected to the PC can also be widely used in various terminals.

  19. Differences Between Psoriasis Patients and Skin-healthy Controls Concerning Appraisal of Touching, Shame and Disgust.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lahousen, Theresa; Kupfer, Jörg; Gieler, Uwe; Hofer, Angelika; Linder, M Dennis; Schut, Christina

    2016-08-23

    Psoriasis is a chronic skin disease associated with high levels of psychological distress and considerable life impact. Feelings of shame and stigmatization can lead to avoidance of social activity and intimacy. In this study, the questionnaire TSD-Q was used to evaluate pleasure in touching oneself and in a partnership, parental touching during childhood and (skin-related) shame and disgust. Skin-related disgust and shame were significantly higher in psoriatic patients than in healthy controls. Moreover, psoriasis-patients scored significantly lower than skin-healthy controls concerning appraisal of self-touching and parental touching. In contrast, psoriasis-patients scored higher concerning appraisal of touching in a partnership. Due to the fact that low self-esteem might enhance the negative evaluation of touch and the feelings of shame and disgust, psychological interventions should be integrated in the treatment of psoriasis.

  20. Sencha Touch cookbook

    CERN Document Server

    Kumar, Ajit

    2011-01-01

    The book is written in a cookbook style, presenting examples in the style of recipes, allowing you to go directly to your topic of interest, or follow topics throughout a chapter to gain in-depth knowledge. This book is ideal for anyone who wants to gain the practical knowledge involved in using Sencha Touch mobile web application framework to make attractive web apps for mobiles. If you have some familiarity with HTML and CSS, then this book is for you. This book will give designers the skills they need to implement their ideas, and provide developers with creative inspiration through practic

  1. Perceptions of job satisfaction relating to affective organisation commitment.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Papinczak, Tracey

    2012-10-01

    Affective organisation commitment, which refers to a psychological attachment to, and involvement with, an employing institution, is regarded as important because of its effects on employee identification with the employer and its causal effects on work effort and staff retention. This paper explores the experiences of casual tutors facilitating problem-based learning (PBL) tutorials and aims to identify aspects of their role that strengthen and detract from employee job satisfaction and affective commitment. Qualitative data were gathered from first- and second-year tutors (N = 13) through 2 focus groups. Both clinicians and non-clinicians were recruited, including highly experienced staff and those with job-related factors; job-involvement characteristics; professional challenges and responsibilities, and mentoring for learning and support. The first 2 themes are congruent with previous literature on organisation commitment; novel findings include the supportive and compensatory nature of the collegial relationships formed between casual tutors. Role attenuation, a job-related factor, was a predominant perception as it related to dysfunctional groups and increasing student disengagement with PBL. Within the unique learning environment of PBL, positive factors relating to job satisfaction may have an important role to play in improving tutors' commitment to their employing organisation. Aspects of the role which are viewed most negatively and relate most significantly to affective commitment need to be addressed promptly. Attention should be directed to supporting tutors to maximise the perceived benefits and providing professional development and improved communication to better address issues associated with difficult or disengaged students as well as isolation from decision-makers. © Blackwell Publishing Ltd 2012.

  2. Light touch contact improves pain-evoked postural instability during quiet standing

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Hirata, Rogerio P.; Christensen, Steffan W.; Agger, Simone

    2018-01-01

    for 40 seconds with their eyes closed. Their postural stability was quantified by the area and velocity of center of pressure (CoP) displacement. The CoP was recorded with and without pain during two different conditions: 1) no touch and 2) the subjects were asked to lightly touch a curtain...

  3. Vicariously touching products through observing others' hand actions increases purchasing intention, and the effect of visual perspective in this process: An fMRI study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yi; Zang, Xuelian; Chen, Lihan; Assumpção, Leonardo; Li, Hong

    2018-01-01

    The growth of online shopping increases consumers' dependence on vicarious sensory experiences, such as observing others touching products in commercials. However, empirical evidence on whether observing others' sensory experiences increases purchasing intention is still scarce. In the present study, participants observed others interacting with products in the first- or third-person perspective in video clips, and their neural responses were measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We investigated (1) whether and how vicariously touching certain products affected purchasing intention, and the neural correlates of this process; and (2) how visual perspective interacts with vicarious tactility. Vicarious tactile experiences were manipulated by hand actions touching or not touching the products, while the visual perspective was manipulated by showing the hand actions either in first- or third-person perspective. During the fMRI scanning, participants watched the video clips and rated their purchasing intention for each product. The results showed that, observing others touching (vs. not touching) the products increased purchasing intention, with vicarious neural responses found in mirror neuron systems (MNS) and lateral occipital complex (LOC). Moreover, the stronger neural activities in MNS was associated with higher purchasing intention. The effects of visual perspectives were found in left superior parietal lobule (SPL), while the interaction of tactility and visual perspective was shown in precuneus and precuneus-LOC connectivity. The present study provides the first evidence that vicariously touching a given product increased purchasing intention and the neural activities in bilateral MNS, LOC, left SPL and precuneus are involved in this process. Hum Brain Mapp 39:332-343, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

  4. The upper spatial limit for perception of displacement is affected by preceding motion.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Stefanova, Miroslava; Mateeff, Stefan; Hohnsbein, Joachim

    2009-03-01

    The upper spatial limit D(max) for perception of apparent motion of a random dot pattern may be strongly affected by another, collinear, motion that precedes it [Mateeff, S., Stefanova, M., &. Hohnsbein, J. (2007). Perceived global direction of a compound of real and apparent motion. Vision Research, 47, 1455-1463]. In the present study this phenomenon was studied with two-dimensional motion stimuli. A random dot pattern moved alternately in the vertical and oblique direction (zig-zag motion). The vertical motion was of 1.04 degrees length; it was produced by three discrete spatial steps of the dots. Thereafter the dots were displaced by a single spatial step in oblique direction. Each motion lasted for 57ms. The upper spatial limit for perception of the oblique motion was measured under two conditions: the vertical component of the oblique motion and the vertical motion were either in the same or in opposite directions. It was found that the perception of the oblique motion was strongly influenced by the relative direction of the vertical motion that preceded it; in the "same" condition the upper spatial limit was much shorter than in the "opposite" condition. Decreasing the speed of the vertical motion reversed this effect. Interpretations based on networks of motion detectors and on Gestalt theory are discussed.

  5. Motor dysfunction and touch-slang in user interface data.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Klein, Yoni; Djaldetti, Ruth; Keller, Yosi; Bachelet, Ido

    2017-07-05

    The recent proliferation in mobile touch-based devices paves the way for increasingly efficient, easy to use natural user interfaces (NUI). Unfortunately, touch-based NUIs might prove difficult, or even impossible to operate, in certain conditions e.g. when suffering from motor dysfunction such as Parkinson's Disease (PD). Yet, the prevalence of such devices makes them particularly suitable for acquiring motor function data, and enabling the early detection of PD symptoms and other conditions. In this work we acquired a unique database of more than 12,500 annotated NUI multi-touch gestures, collected from PD patients and healthy volunteers, that were analyzed by applying advanced shape analysis and statistical inference schemes. The proposed analysis leads to a novel detection scheme for early stages of PD. Moreover, our computational analysis revealed that young subjects may be using a 'slang' form of gesture-making to reduce effort and attention cost while maintaining meaning, whereas older subjects put an emphasis on content and precise performance.

  6. Acetylated tubulin is essential for touch sensation in mice.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Morley, Shane J; Qi, Yanmei; Iovino, Loredana; Andolfi, Laura; Guo, Da; Kalebic, Nereo; Castaldi, Laura; Tischer, Christian; Portulano, Carla; Bolasco, Giulia; Shirlekar, Kalyanee; Fusco, Claudia M; Asaro, Antonino; Fermani, Federica; Sundukova, Mayya; Matti, Ulf; Reymond, Luc; De Ninno, Adele; Businaro, Luca; Johnsson, Kai; Lazzarino, Marco; Ries, Jonas; Schwab, Yannick; Hu, Jing; Heppenstall, Paul A

    2016-12-13

    At its most fundamental level, touch sensation requires the translation of mechanical energy into mechanosensitive ion channel opening, thereby generating electro-chemical signals. Our understanding of this process, especially how the cytoskeleton influences it, remains unknown. Here we demonstrate that mice lacking the α-tubulin acetyltransferase Atat1 in sensory neurons display profound deficits in their ability to detect mechanical stimuli. We show that all cutaneous afferent subtypes, including nociceptors have strongly reduced mechanosensitivity upon Atat1 deletion, and that consequently, mice are largely insensitive to mechanical touch and pain. We establish that this broad loss of mechanosensitivity is dependent upon the acetyltransferase activity of Atat1, which when absent leads to a decrease in cellular elasticity. By mimicking α-tubulin acetylation genetically, we show both cellular rigidity and mechanosensitivity can be restored in Atat1 deficient sensory neurons. Hence, our results indicate that by influencing cellular stiffness, α-tubulin acetylation sets the force required for touch.

  7. Mechanosensitive Channels: In Touch with Piezo

    OpenAIRE

    Xiao, Rui; Xu, X.Z. Shawn

    2010-01-01

    Mechanosensory transduction underlies touch, hearing and proprioception and requires mechanosensitive channels that are directly gated by forces; however, the molecular identities of these channels remain largely elusive. A new study has identified Piezo1 and Piezo2 as a novel class of mechanosensitive channels.

  8. Touch sensitivity with sterile standard surgical gloves and single-use protective gloves.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tiefenthaler, W; Gimpl, S; Wechselberger, G; Benzer, A

    2006-10-01

    The purpose of this study was to evaluate touch sensitivity and static two-point discrimination of the dominant index and middle finger in 20 anaesthetists wearing no gloves, single-use protective gloves or sterile standard surgical gloves. Semmes-Weinstein filaments were used to measure cutaneous pressure thresholds, and a Two-Point-Discriminator to estimate static two-point discrimination. Wearing gloves significantly reduced touch sensitivity (p gloves. The results of our study suggest that the additional cost of sterile standard surgical gloves can not be justified in terms of touch sensitivity.

  9. Stroking and tapping the skin: behavioral and electrodermal effects.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Etzi, Roberta; Carta, Carlotta; Gallace, Alberto

    2018-02-01

    Being caressed represents one of the most typical expressions of affection conveyed by touch. Converging evidence suggests that the pleasant perception of gentle and slow stroking delivered to the hairy skin is mediated by C-Tactile afferents (CTs). While behavioral and neural responses to CT-optimal touch have been moderately explored so far, less is known about the autonomic reaction to different kinds of touch (both CT-optimal and not). Here, we investigated whether physiological arousal varies as a function of the specific tactile stimulation provided. Stroking (slow: 3 cm/s 'CT-optimal'; or fast: 30 cm/s) and tapping (random or fixed spatial order) stimulations were delivered to the participants' forearm with a brush, for durations of 9 or 60 s. Participants' skin conductance response (SCR) and level (SCL), as well as subjective evaluations, were recorded. The results revealed that being stroked (at both the velocities) induced higher SCR and SCL than being tapped. Moreover, while higher SCR was elicited by CT-suboptimal stroking compared to CT-optimal stroking, SCL was not affected differently by CT-optimal touch. No differences were found between the effects of 9 and 60 s stimulations. Slow stroking was evaluated as the most pleasant, relaxing and 'social' type of touch compared to the other tactile stimulations. Taken together, these findings shed light on the psychophysiological responses to stroking (including CT-optimal touch) and tapping, and contribute to elucidate the mechanisms underlying hedonic tactile perception.

  10. ExTouch: Spatially-aware embodied manipulation of actuated objects mediated by augmented reality

    OpenAIRE

    Kasahara, Shunichi; Niiyama, Ryuma; Ishii, Hiroshi; Heun, Valentin Markus Josef

    2013-01-01

    As domestic robots and smart appliances become increasingly common, they require a simple, universal interface to control their motion. Such an interface must support a simple selection of a connected device, highlight its capabilities and allow for an intuitive manipulation. We propose "exTouch", an embodied spatially-aware approach to touch and control devices through an augmented reality mediated mobile interface. The "exTouch" system extends the users touchscreen interactions into the rea...

  11. The influence of image interactivity upon user engagement when using mobile touch screens

    OpenAIRE

    Blazquez Cano, Marta; Perry, Patsy; Ashman, Rachel; Waite, Kathryn

    2017-01-01

    Touch screens are a key component of consumer mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets, as well as an increasingly common self-service component of information retrieval on fixed screens and mobile devices in-store. The ubiquity of touch screens in daily life increases consumer accessibility and extended use for shopping, whilst software innovations have increased the functionality of touch screens, for example the extent to which images respond to fingertip control. This study examines...

  12. Sensory integration of a light touch reference in human standing balance

    Science.gov (United States)

    Smith, Craig P.; Reynolds, Raymond F.

    2018-01-01

    In upright stance, light touch of a space-stationary touch reference reduces spontaneous sway. Moving the reference evokes sway responses which exhibit non-linear behavior that has been attributed to sensory reweighting. Reweighting refers to a change in the relative contribution of sensory cues signaling body sway in space and light touch cues signaling finger position with respect to the body. Here we test the hypothesis that the sensory fusion process involves a transformation of light touch signals into the same reference frame as other sensory inputs encoding body sway in space, or vice versa. Eight subjects lightly gripped a robotic manipulandum which moved in a circular arc around the ankle joint. A pseudo-randomized motion sequence with broad spectral characteristics was applied at three amplitudes. The stimulus was presented at two different heights and therefore different radial distances, which were matched in terms of angular motion. However, the higher stimulus evoked a significantly larger sway response, indicating that the response was not matched to stimulus angular motion. Instead, the body sway response was strongly related to the horizontal translation of the manipulandum. The results suggest that light touch is integrated as the horizontal distance between body COM and the finger. The data were well explained by a model with one feedback loop minimizing changes in horizontal COM-finger distance. The model further includes a second feedback loop estimating the horizontal finger motion and correcting the first loop when the touch reference is moving. The second loop includes the predicted transformation of sensory signals into the same reference frame and a non-linear threshold element that reproduces the non-linear sway responses, thus providing a mechanism that can explain reweighting. PMID:29874252

  13. Creating Joint Representations of Collaborative Problem Solving with Multi-Touch Technology

    Science.gov (United States)

    Mercier, E.; Higgins, S.

    2014-01-01

    Multi-touch surfaces have the potential to change the nature of computer-supported collaborative learning, allowing more equitable access to shared digital content. In this paper, we explore how large multi-touch tables can be used by groups of students as an external representation of their group interaction processes. Video data from 24 groups…

  14. Gender and the Communication of Emotion Via Touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hertenstein, Matthew J; Keltner, Dacher

    2011-01-01

    We reanalyzed a data set consisting of a U.S. undergraduate sample (N = 212) from a previous study (Hertenstein et al. 2006a) that showed that touch communicates distinct emotions between humans. In the current reanalysis, we found that anger was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a male comprised at least one member of a communicating dyad. Sympathy was communicated at greater-than-chance levels only when a female comprised at least one member of the dyad. Finally, happiness was communicated only if females comprised the entire dyad. The current analysis demonstrates gender asymmetries in the accuracy of communicating distinct emotions via touch between humans.

  15. Factors that affect college students' perceptions of rape: what is the role of gender and other situational factors?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Vandiver, Donna M; Dupalo, Jessica Rager

    2013-05-01

    Prior research has shown that various situational factors and behaviors can affect one's perception of whether a rape has occurred. Moreover, some hold false beliefs about rape. This can also affect one's perception of ambiguous situations. This study included the administration of a survey to 584 college students; the survey examined the prevalence of rape myths and responses to vignettes of potential rape scenarios. It was found that although the majority of this sample did not support rape myths, male students were significantly more likely than female students to support rape myths. Furthermore, approximately 20% of students did support one subscale of the rape myth scale: He didn't mean to [commit rape]. The results also revealed an interaction effect between the observer's sex and the victim's sex, suggesting a complex gender relationship.

  16. Investigation of force, contact area, and dwell time in finger-tapping tasks on membrane touch interface.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Na; Yu, Ruifeng

    2018-06-01

    This study aimed to determine the touch characteristics during tapping tasks on membrane touch interface and investigate the effects of posture and gender on touch characteristics variables. One hundred participants tapped digits displayed on a membrane touch interface on sitting and standing positions using all fingers of the dominant hand. Touch characteristics measures included average force, contact area, and dwell time. Across fingers and postures, males exerted larger force and contact area than females, but similar dwell time. Across genders and postures, thumb exerted the largest force and the force of the other four fingers showed no significant difference. The contact area of the thumb was the largest, whereas that of the little finger was the smallest; the dwell time of the thumb was the longest, whereas that of the middle finger was the shortest. Relationships among finger sizes, gender, posture and touch characteristics were proposed. The findings helped direct membrane touch interface design for digital and numerical control products from hardware and software perspectives. Practitioner Summary: This study measured force, contact area, and dwell time in tapping tasks on membrane touch interface and examined effects of gender and posture on force, contact area, and dwell time. The findings will direct membrane touch interface design for digital and numerical control products from hardware and software perspectives.

  17. Cognitive and Socio-Affective Outcomes of Project-Based Learning: Perceptions of Greek Second Chance School Students

    Science.gov (United States)

    Koutrouba, Konstantina; Karageorgou, Elissavet

    2013-01-01

    The present questionnaire-based study was conducted in 2010 in order to examine 677 Greek Second Chance School (SCS) students' perceptions about the cognitive and socio-affective outcomes of project-based learning. Data elaboration, statistical and factor analysis showed that the participants found that project-based learning offered a second…

  18. Factors Affecting Customer’s Perception of Service Quality: Comparing Differences among Countries - Case study: Beauty salons in Bandung and Tokyo

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Keiko Nakashima

    2012-01-01

    Full Text Available This paper examines a holistic study of analyzing several factors affecting service quality andtheir correlation with characteristic of customers based on value and life style. Furthermore,customer’s perception of service quality can be drawn from those relationships. Exploratoryfactor analysis and quantitative analysis is employed with case study of beauty salon serviceat Bandung and Tokyo. The results indicate how the quality of services is perceived differentlyby customers who have different value and life style, and also describe significant relationshipbetween value and life style with the affecting factors of service quality.Key words : service quality, value and life style, customer perception, beauty salon.

  19. High Touch Approach and Its Relationship with Students’ Learning Outcomes at IAIN Bukittinggi

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Darul Ilmi

    2017-07-01

    Full Text Available Learning without students’ center tends to create less passionate students in following the lecture. They tend to ignore their lecturer. They have less attention, and try to create ineffective conditions, therefore, the learning atmosphere will become less effective to achieve the intended goals.  The purpose of the research is to determine the process of learning, the implementation of High Touch approach, and factors that influence its implementation. Classroom action research approach was used at  department of mathematics which involve students who enroll at academic year 2016/2017 IAIN Bukittinggi. The research was done in two cycles in which one cycle conducted three meetings. The instruments used were observation, essay questions, and tasks given to students. The results show that there is an improvement in students’ participation and activeness in learning when their lecturer builds learning experience through reinforcement, affection, guide, directive action, and good modeling by student–center andself-learning activities, and independent learning skill orientations showed in cycle I and II. It implies that implementing high touch may lead students to be more active, creative, and fun in learning

  20. Affect, risk perception, and the use of cigarettes and e-cigarettes: a population study of U.S. adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Popova, Lucy; Owusu, Daniel; Weaver, Scott R; Kemp, Catherine B; Mertz, C K; Pechacek, Terry F; Slovic, Paul

    2018-03-22

    Tobacco companies argue that the decision to smoke is made by well-informed rational adults who have considered all the risks and benefits of smoking. Yet in promoting their products, the tobacco industry frequently relies on affect, portraying their products as part of a desirable lifestyle. Research examining the roles of affect and perceived risks in smoking has been scant and non-existent for novel tobacco products, such as electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes). We examined the relationship between affect, perceived risk, and current use for cigarettes and e-cigarettes in 2015 in a nationally representative sample of 5398 U.S. adults who were aware of e-cigarettes. Participants held various affective associations with tobacco products, and affect towards cigarettes was more negative than affect towards e-cigarettes. Using structural equation modeling (SEM), affect towards cigarettes and e-cigarettes was associated with cigarette smoking and e-cigarette use respectively, and these associations were both direct and partially mediated by risk perceptions towards smoking and e-cigarette use. More positive affect towards cigarettes or e-cigarettes was associated with lower perceived risks, which in turn was associated with higher odds of being a current cigarette or e-cigarette user. In developing models explaining tobacco use behavior, or in creating public communication campaigns aimed at curbing tobacco use, it is useful to focus not only on the reason based predictors, such as perceptions of risks and benefits, but also on affective predictors. Educational efforts aimed at further smoking reductions should highlight and reinforce negative images and associations with cigarettes.

  1. Touch, the essence of caring for people with end-stage dementia: a mental health perspective in Namaste Care.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Nicholls, Daniel; Chang, Esther; Johnson, Amanda; Edenborough, Michel

    2013-01-01

    This article presents the mental health aspects of 'touch' associated with a funded research project: Avoiding 'high tech' through 'high touch' in end-stage dementia: Protocol for care at the end-of-life. These mental health aspects highlight the human need for touch that continues up until and inclusive of the final stages of life. This study was informed by Simard's (2007) 'high touch' protocol based on the End-of-Life Namaste Care programme for people with dementia. The article is situated in relation to the research project which used a three-phase mixed methods approach. Data explored in this article are derived from focus groups conducted at three residential aged care facilities located in metropolitan and regional areas of NSW, Australia. The exploration of touch vis-a-vis mental health fell under two broad themes: touch by others and touch by the person. Sub-elements of these themes comprised touch towards a physical objective, touch towards an emotional objective, touch of objects and touch of others. The overarching outcome of interconnectedness embraced environmental awareness and human and life awareness. These two broad themes, with their accompanying elements, express the essential nature of mental health as a reciprocal connectedness, with reciprocal impacts on both those people with advanced dementia and their carers.

  2. Using an experimental model for the study of therapeutic touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    dos Santos, Daniella Soares; Marta, Ilda Estéfani Ribeiro; Cárnio, Evelin Capellari; de Quadros, Andreza Urba; Cunha, Thiago Mattar; de Carvalho, Emilia Campos

    2013-02-01

    to verify whether the Paw Edema Model can be used in investigations about the effects of Therapeutic Touch on inflammation by measuring the variables pain, edema and neutrophil migration. this is a pilot and experimental study, involving ten male mice of the same genetic strain and divided into experimental and control group, submitted to the chemical induction of local inflammation in the right back paw. The experimental group received a daily administration of Therapeutic Touch for 15 minutes during three days. the data showed statistically significant differences in the nociceptive threshold and in the paw circumference of the animals from the experimental group on the second day of the experiment. the experiment model involving animals can contribute to study the effects of Therapeutic Touch on inflammation, and adjustments are suggested in the treatment duration, number of sessions and experiment duration.

  3. The phase of prestimulus alpha oscillations affects tactile perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Ai, Lei; Ro, Tony

    2014-03-01

    Previous studies have shown that neural oscillations in the 8- to 12-Hz range influence sensory perception. In the current study, we examined whether both the power and phase of these mu/alpha oscillations predict successful conscious tactile perception. Near-threshold tactile stimuli were applied to the left hand while electroencephalographic (EEG) activity was recorded over the contralateral right somatosensory cortex. We found a significant inverted U-shaped relationship between prestimulus mu/alpha power and detection rate, suggesting that there is an intermediate level of alpha power that is optimal for tactile perception. We also found a significant difference in phase angle concentration at stimulus onset that predicted whether the upcoming tactile stimulus was perceived or missed. As has been shown in the visual system, these findings suggest that these mu/alpha oscillations measured over somatosensory areas exert a strong inhibitory control on tactile perception and that pulsed inhibition by these oscillations shapes the state of brain activity necessary for conscious perception. They further suggest that these common phasic processing mechanisms across different sensory modalities and brain regions may reflect a common underlying encoding principle in perceptual processing that leads to momentary windows of perceptual awareness.

  4. TOUCH INTERACTION WITH 3D GEOGRAPHICAL VISUALIZATION ON WEB: SELECTED TECHNOLOGICAL AND USER ISSUES

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    L. Herman

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available The use of both 3D visualization and devices with touch displays is increasing. In this paper, we focused on the Web technologies for 3D visualization of spatial data and its interaction via touch screen gestures. At the first stage, we compared the support of touch interaction in selected JavaScript libraries on different hardware (desktop PCs with touch screens, tablets, and smartphones and software platforms. Afterward, we realized simple empiric test (within-subject design, 6 participants, 2 simple tasks, LCD touch monitor Acer and digital terrain models as stimuli focusing on the ability of users to solve simple spatial tasks via touch screens. An in-house testing web tool was developed and used based on JavaScript, PHP, and X3DOM languages and Hammer.js libraries. The correctness of answers, speed of users’ performances, used gestures, and a simple gesture metric was recorded and analysed. Preliminary results revealed that the pan gesture is most frequently used by test participants and it is also supported by the majority of 3D libraries. Possible gesture metrics and future developments including the interpersonal differences are discussed in the conclusion.

  5. Clear signals or mixed messages: inter-individual emotion congruency modulates brain activity underlying affective body perception

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Gelder, B.

    2016-01-01

    The neural basis of emotion perception has mostly been investigated with single face or body stimuli. However, in daily life one may also encounter affective expressions by groups, e.g. an angry mob or an exhilarated concert crowd. In what way is brain activity modulated when several individuals express similar rather than different emotions? We investigated this question using an experimental design in which we presented two stimuli simultaneously, with same or different emotional expressions. We hypothesized that, in the case of two same-emotion stimuli, brain activity would be enhanced, while in the case of two different emotions, one emotion would interfere with the effect of the other. The results showed that the simultaneous perception of different affective body expressions leads to a deactivation of the amygdala and a reduction of cortical activity. It was revealed that the processing of fearful bodies, compared with different-emotion bodies, relied more strongly on saliency and action triggering regions in inferior parietal lobe and insula, while happy bodies drove the occipito-temporal cortex more strongly. We showed that this design could be used to uncover important differences between brain networks underlying fearful and happy emotions. The enhancement of brain activity for unambiguous affective signals expressed by several people simultaneously supports adaptive behaviour in critical situations. PMID:27025242

  6. Artificial spatiotemporal touch inputs reveal complementary decoding in neocortical neurons.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oddo, Calogero M; Mazzoni, Alberto; Spanne, Anton; Enander, Jonas M D; Mogensen, Hannes; Bengtsson, Fredrik; Camboni, Domenico; Micera, Silvestro; Jörntell, Henrik

    2017-04-04

    Investigations of the mechanisms of touch perception and decoding has been hampered by difficulties in achieving invariant patterns of skin sensor activation. To obtain reproducible spatiotemporal patterns of activation of sensory afferents, we used an artificial fingertip equipped with an array of neuromorphic sensors. The artificial fingertip was used to transduce real-world haptic stimuli into spatiotemporal patterns of spikes. These spike patterns were delivered to the skin afferents of the second digit of rats via an array of stimulation electrodes. Combined with low-noise intra- and extracellular recordings from neocortical neurons in vivo, this approach provided a previously inaccessible high resolution analysis of the representation of tactile information in the neocortical neuronal circuitry. The results indicate high information content in individual neurons and reveal multiple novel neuronal tactile coding features such as heterogeneous and complementary spatiotemporal input selectivity also between neighboring neurons. Such neuronal heterogeneity and complementariness can potentially support a very high decoding capacity in a limited population of neurons. Our results also indicate a potential neuroprosthetic approach to communicate with the brain at a very high resolution and provide a potential novel solution for evaluating the degree or state of neurological disease in animal models.

  7. Dazzle camouflage affects speed perception.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Nicholas E Scott-Samuel

    Full Text Available Movement is the enemy of camouflage: most attempts at concealment are disrupted by motion of the target. Faced with this problem, navies in both World Wars in the twentieth century painted their warships with high contrast geometric patterns: so-called "dazzle camouflage". Rather than attempting to hide individual units, it was claimed that this patterning would disrupt the perception of their range, heading, size, shape and speed, and hence reduce losses from, in particular, torpedo attacks by submarines. Similar arguments had been advanced earlier for biological camouflage. Whilst there are good reasons to believe that most of these perceptual distortions may have occurred, there is no evidence for the last claim: changing perceived speed. Here we show that dazzle patterns can distort speed perception, and that this effect is greatest at high speeds. The effect should obtain in predators launching ballistic attacks against rapidly moving prey, or modern, low-tech battlefields where handheld weapons are fired from short ranges against moving vehicles. In the latter case, we demonstrate that in a typical situation involving an RPG7 attack on a Land Rover the reduction in perceived speed is sufficient to make the grenade miss where it was aimed by about a metre, which could be the difference between survival or not for the occupants of the vehicle.

  8. Introduction to the special issue: Intuition and affect in risk perception and decision making

    OpenAIRE

    Gisela Boehm; Wibecke Brun

    2008-01-01

    (from the introduction) Intuition and affect have been neglected topics in the literature on human judgment and decision making for a long time. Judgmental processes involved in risk perception and decision making have traditionally been conceptualized as cognitive in nature, being based upon a rational and deliberate evaluation of the alternatives at hand. This picture started to change in the early 1980s when decision researchers looked beyond rational, deliberate, and cognitive processes a...

  9. The association between need for touch and desire for unique products and consumer (interdependent problem-solving

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Valter Afonso Vieira

    2013-09-01

    Full Text Available Some people cannot buy products without first touching them, believing that doing so will create more assurance and information and reduce uncertainty. The international consumer marketing literature suggests an instrument to measure consumers' necessity for pohysical contact, called Need for Touch (NFT. This paper analyzes whether the Need for Touch structure is empirically consistent. Based on a literature review, we suggest six hypotheses in order to assess the nomological, convergent, and discriminant validity of the phenomenon. Departing from these, data supported four assumptions in the predicted direction. Need for Touch was associated with Need for Input and with Need for Cognition. Need for Touch was not associated with traditional marketing channels. The results also showed the dual characterization of Need for Touch as a bi-dimensional construct. The moderator effect indicated that when the consumer has a higher (vs. lower Need for Touch autotelic score, the experiential motivation for shopping played a more (vs. less important role in impulsive motivation. Our Study 3 supports the NFT structure and shows new associations with the need for unique products and dependent decisions.

  10. Touch in Computer-Mediated Environments: An Analysis of Online Shoppers’ Touch-Interface User Experiences

    OpenAIRE

    Chung, Sorim

    2016-01-01

    Over the past few years, one of the most fundamental changes in current computer-mediated environments has been input devices, moving from mouse devices to touch interfaces. However, most studies of online retailing have not considered device environments as retail cues that could influence users’ shopping behavior. In this research, I examine the underlying mechanisms between input device environments and shoppers’ decision-making processes. In particular, I investigate the impact of input d...

  11. Non-conscious visual cues related to affect and action alter perception of effort and endurance performance

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anthony William Blanchfield

    2014-12-01

    Full Text Available The psychobiological model of endurance performance proposes that endurance performance is determined by a decision-making process based on perception of effort and potential motivation. Recent research has reported that effort-based decision-making during cognitive tasks can be altered by non-conscious visual cues relating to affect and action. The effect of these non-conscious visual cues on effort and performance during physical tasks is however unknown. We report two experiments investigating the effect of subliminal priming with visual cues related to affect and action on perception of effort and endurance performance. In Experiment 1 thirteen individuals were subliminally primed with happy or sad faces as they cycled to exhaustion in a counterbalanced and randomized crossover design. A paired t-test (happy vs. sad faces revealed that individuals cycled for significantly longer (178 s, p = .04 when subliminally primed with happy faces. A 2 x 5 (condition x iso-time ANOVA also revealed a significant main effect of condition on rating of perceived exertion (RPE during the time to exhaustion (TTE test with lower RPE when subjects were subliminally primed with happy faces (p = .04. In Experiment 2, a single-subject randomization tests design found that subliminal priming with action words facilitated a significantly longer (399 s, p = .04 TTE in comparison to inaction words (p = .04. Like Experiment 1, this greater TTE was accompanied by a significantly lower RPE (p = .03. These experiments are the first to show that subliminal visual cues relating to affect and action can alter perception of effort and endurance performance. Non-conscious visual cues may therefore influence the effort-based decision-making process that is proposed to determine endurance performance. Accordingly, the findings raise notable implications for individuals who may encounter such visual cues during endurance competitions, training, or health related exercise.

  12. Finding the Right Touch: Extending the Right-Touch Regulation Approach to the Accreditation of Voluntary Registers

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bilton, Douglas; Cayton, Harry

    2013-01-01

    What is "right-touch regulation"? In this article we explain why the Professional Standards Authority for Health and Social Care (the Authority) has focussed much of its policy work in recent times on seeking an answer to this question, and why it wants to know. We explain why the Authority's predecessor body, the Council for Healthcare…

  13. Cunt touch this: a conversation on intimate design and embarrassment

    OpenAIRE

    Kirman, Ben; Harrer, Sabine; Hasselager, Andrea; Linehan, Conor; Toft, Ida; Schumacher, Raimund

    2015-01-01

    This position paper presents a conversation between players and the designers of the unique mobile game experience Cunt Touch This. Revisiting their personal experiences with playing the game, the player-authors read the game as a system that takes advantage of social embarrassment as a key element from which the pleasure of the game is derived. Contrasting this view, the designer-authors comment on the original intention, production context and purpose of Cunt Touch This. The goal of thi...

  14. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Elizabeth Zack

    2016-08-01

    Full Text Available Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a 2-dimensional (2D screen and 3-dimensional (3D object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emotional responsiveness and infant outcomes during a transfer of learning task. Fifty 15-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this semi-naturalistic teaching task. Mothers were given a 3D object, and a static image of the object presented on a touch screen. Mothers had 5 minutes to teach their infant that a button on the real toy works in the same way as a virtual button on the touch screen (or vice versa. Overall, 64% of infants learned how to make the button work, transferring learning from the touch screen to the 3D object or vice versa. Infants were just as successful in the 3D to 2D transfer direction as they were in the 2D to 3D transfer direction. A cluster analysis based on emotional responsiveness, the proportion of diverse maternal verbal input, and amount of maternal structuring resulted in two levels of interactional quality: high quality and moderate quality. A logistic regression revealed the level of interactional quality predicted infant transfer. Infants were 19 times more likely to succeed and transfer learning between the touch screen and real object if they were in a high interactional quality dyad, even after controlling for infant activity levels. The present findings suggest that interactional quality between mother and infant plays an important role in making touch screens effective teaching tools for infants’ learning.

  15. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a two-dimensional (2D) screen and three-dimensional (3D) object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emotional responsiveness and infant outcomes during a transfer of learning task. Fifty 15-month-old infants and their mothers participated in this semi-naturalistic teaching task. Mothers were given a 3D object, and a static image of the object presented on a touch screen. Mothers had 5 min to teach their infant that a button on the real toy works in the same way as a virtual button on the touch screen (or vice versa). Overall, 64% of infants learned how to make the button work, transferring learning from the touch screen to the 3D object or vice versa. Infants were just as successful in the 3D to 2D transfer direction as they were in the 2D to 3D transfer direction. A cluster analysis based on emotional responsiveness, the proportion of diverse maternal verbal input, and amount of maternal structuring resulted in two levels of interactional quality: high quality and moderate quality. A logistic regression revealed the level of interactional quality predicted infant transfer. Infants were 19 times more likely to succeed and transfer learning between the touch screen and real object if they were in a high interactional quality dyad, even after controlling for infant activity levels. The present findings suggest that interactional quality between mother and infant plays an important role in making touch screens effective teaching tools for infants' learning.

  16. Dual Innervation of Neonatal Merkel Cells in Mouse Touch Domes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Luo, Wenqin

    2014-01-01

    Merkel cell-neurite complexes are specialized mechanosensory end organs that mediate discriminative touch sensation. It is well established that type I slowly adapting (SAI) mechanoreceptors, which express neural filament heavy chain (NFH), innervate Merkel cells. It was previously shown that neurotrophic factor NT3 and its receptor TrkC play crucial roles in controlling touch dome Merkel cell innervation of NFH+ fibers. In addition, nerve fibers expressing another neurotrophic tyrosine receptor kinase (NTRK), Ret, innervate touch dome Merkel cells as well. However, the relationship between afferents responsive to NT3/TrkC signaling and those expressing Ret is unclear. It is also controversial if these Ret+ fibers belong to the early or late Ret+ DRG neurons, which are defined based on the co-expression and developmental dependence of TrkA. To address these questions, we genetically traced Ret+ and TrkC+ fibers and analyzed their developmental dependence on TrkA. We found that Merkel cells in neonatal mouse touch domes receive innervation of two types of fibers: one group is Ret+, while the other subset expresses TrkC and NFH. In addition, Ret+ fibers depend on TrkA for their survival and normal innervation whereas NFH+ Merkel cell innervating fibers are almost unaltered in TrkA mutant mice, supporting that Ret+ and NFH+/TrkC+ afferents are two distinct groups. Ret signaling, on the other hand, plays a minor role for the innervation of neonatal touch domes. In contrast, Merkel cells in the glabrous skin are mainly contacted by NFH+/TrkC+ afferents. Taken together, our results suggest that neonatal Merkel cells around hair follicles receive dual innervation while Merkel cells in the glabrous skin are mainly innervated by only SAI mechanoreceptors. In addition, our results suggest that neonatal Ret+ Merkel cell innervating fibers most likely belong to the late but not early Ret+ DRG neurons. PMID:24637732

  17. The value of virtual touch tissue image (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Zhang, Feng-Juan; Han, Ruo-Ling; Zhao, Xin-Ming

    2014-01-01

    Highlights: • All nodules in the research were confirmed by histopathology. • The classification method of VTI was easy to learn. • VTQ could provide quantitative elasticity measurements for thyroid nodules. • VTI classification could provide semi-quantitative elasticity analysis. • The area ratio could show invasive extent of malignant tumor. - Abstract: Objectives: To explore the value of virtual touch tissue image (VTI) and virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules. Methods: One-hundred and seven patients with 113 thyroid nodules were performed conventional ultrasound and acoustic radiation force impulse (ARFI) elastography. The stiffness of the nodules on virtual touch tissue image (VTI) was graded, and the area ratios (AR) of nodules on VTI images versus on B-mode images were calculated. Shear wave velocity (SWV) within the thyroid nodules were measured using virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) technique. The pathological diagnosis as the gold standard draws the receiver-operating characteristic curve (ROC) to find the cut-off point of VTI grades, AR and SWV to predict thyroid cancer. Results: The difference in VTI grades of malignant and benign nodules was statistically significant (P < 0.05), as well as in AR and SWV. There was no significant difference in the AR of nodules or the SWV of nodules in benign group or in malignant group. The sensitivity, specificity, accuracy, positive predictive value (PPV), and negative predictive value (NPV) of VTI grades, AR, and SWV in the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules were calculated. There was no significant difference in diagnostic accuracy among the three methods. Conclusion: VTI grades, AR of nodules on VTI images versus on B-mode images and SWV within the nodules can help the differential diagnosis of thyroid nodules

  18. Biased perception about gene technology: How perceived naturalness and affect distort benefit perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Siegrist, Michael; Hartmann, Christina; Sütterlin, Bernadette

    2016-01-01

    In two experiments, the participants showed biased responses when asked to evaluate the benefits of gene technology. They evaluated the importance of additional yields in corn fields due to a newly introduced variety, which would increase a farmer's revenues. In one condition, the newly introduced variety was described as a product of traditional breeding; in the other, it was identified as genetically modified (GM). The two experiments' findings showed that the same benefits were perceived as less important for a farmer when these were the result of GM crops compared with traditionally bred crops. Mediation analyses suggest that perceived naturalness and the affect associated with the technology per se influence the interpretation of the new information. The lack of perceived naturalness of gene technology seems to be the reason for the participants' perceived lower benefits of a new corn variety in the gene technology condition compared with the perceptions of the participants assigned to the traditional breeding condition. The strategy to increase the acceptance of gene technology by introducing plant varieties that better address consumer and producer needs may not work because people discount its associated benefits. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

  19. Exploring Effects of Multi-Touch Tabletop on Collaborative Fraction Learning and the Relationship of Learning Behavior and Interaction with Learning Achievement

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hwang, Wu-Yuin; Shadiev, Rustam; Tseng, Chi-Wei; Huang, Yueh-Min

    2015-01-01

    This study designed a learning system to facilitate elementary school students' fraction learning. An experiment was carried out to investigate how the system, which runs on multi-touch tabletop versus tablet PC, affects fraction learning. Two groups, a control and experimental, were assigned. Control students have learned fraction by using tablet…

  20. Ionic signaling in plant responses to gravity and touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Fasano, Jeremiah M.; Massa, Gioia D.; Gilroy, Simon

    2002-01-01

    Touch and gravity are two of the many stimuli that plants must integrate to generate an appropriate growth response. Due to the mechanical nature of both of these signals, shared signal transduction elements could well form the basis of the cross-talk between these two sensory systems. However, touch stimulation must elicit signaling events across the plasma membrane whereas gravity sensing is thought to represent transformation of an internal force, amyloplast sedimentation, to signal transduction events. In addition, factors such as turgor pressure and presence of the cell wall may also place unique constraints on these plant mechanosensory systems. Even so, the candidate signal transduction elements in both plant touch and gravity sensing, changes in Ca2+, pH and membrane potential, do mirror the known ionic basis of signaling in animal mechanosensory cells. Distinct spatial and temporal signatures of Ca2+ ions may encode information about the different mechanosignaling stimuli. Signals such as Ca2+ waves or action potentials may also rapidly transfer information perceived in one cell throughout a tissue or organ leading to the systemic reactions characteristic of plant touch and gravity responses. Longer-term growth responses are likely sustained via changes in gene expression and asymmetries in compounds such as inositol-1,4,5-triphosphate (IP3) and calmodulin. Thus, it seems likely that plant mechanoperception involves both spatial and temporal encoding of information at all levels, from the cell to the whole plant. Defining this patterning will be a critical step towards understanding how plants integrate information from multiple mechanical stimuli to an appropriate growth response.

  1. Touch Screen Tablets and Emergent Literacy

    Science.gov (United States)

    Neumann, Michelle M.; Neumann, David L.

    2014-01-01

    The use of touch screen tablets by young children is increasing in the home and in early childhood settings. The simple tactile interface and finger-based operating features of tablets may facilitate preschoolers' use of tablet application software and support their educational development in domains such as literacy. This article reviews…

  2. Movement and touch make plants shorter

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Heuvelink, E.; Kierkels, T.

    2017-01-01

    Plants in the greenhouse are increasingly on the move. More attention is being paid to air circulation and mobile cultivation is on the rise. Research shows that movement and touch (also as plants rub against each other) slow down growth. That can be frustrating but you can also use it to your

  3. Touch screens as a tool in patient care in the IBD outpatient clinic.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Larsen, Lone; Drewes, Asbjørn Mohr; Fallingborg, Jan; Jacobsen, Bent Ascanius; Jess, Tine

    2016-09-01

    We have introduced online touch screens in the waiting room for patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) or Crohn's disease (CD) for recording of symptoms before their consultation. This has made disease activity scores readily available to the physician in our newly established database, 'Gastrobio'. We wanted to validate the use of touch screens compared to paper questionnaires. A total of 54 patients with UC and 74 patients with CD were included in the study. The UC patients filled out the Short Health Scale (SHS) and Simple Clinical Colitis Activity Index (SSCAI). The CD patients filled out the SHS and Harvey-Bradshaw Index (HBI). Paper questionnaires and touch screen versions were used in random order and comparison between the two modalities was made by Spearman correlation test, Bland-Altman plots, and Kappa-statistics. Among the 128 patients, the two SHS scores (SHS touch versus SHS paper) were found to be highly correlated (Spearman correlation; 0.92 for UC and 0.92 for CD). Also, on average, Bland-Altman plots demonstrated a difference close to zero between the two modalities. Agreement between paper version and touch screen version of SCCAI and HBI scores was also high (Kappa-statistics; 78% raw and 98% weighted for SCCAI; 65% raw and 97% weighted for HBI). It is feasible to introduce touch screens in the outpatient clinic and to have patients record their symptoms before the consultation. However, the study may not be representative for elderly patients.

  4. Touch Locating and Stretch Sensing Studies of Conductive Hydrogels with Applications to Soft Robots.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Zhou, Yanmin; He, Bin; Yan, Zhe; Shang, Yinghui; Wang, Qigang; Wang, Zhipeng

    2018-02-13

    Soft robots possess great potential in environmental adaptations, while their environmental sensing abilities are critical. Conductive hydrogels have been suggested to possess sensing abilities. However, their application in soft robots is lacking. In this work, we fabricated a soft and stretchable gel material, introduced its sensing mechanisms, and developed a measurement setup. Both experimental and simulation studies indicate strong nonlinearity of touch locating on a square touch panel with Cartesian coordinates. To simplify the touch locating, we proposed a touch locating system based on round touch panels with polar coordinates. Mathematical calculations and finite element method (FEM) simulations showed that in this system the locating of a touch point was only determined by its polar radius. This was verified by experimental studies. As a resistor, a gel strip's resistance increases with stretching. To demonstrate their applications on soft robots, a 3D printed three-fingered soft gripper was employed with gel strips attached. During finger bending for rod grasping, the resistances of the gel strips increased, indicating stretching of the soft material. Furthermore, the strain and stress of a gel strip increased with a decrease of the rod diameter. These studies advance the application of conductive hydrogels on soft robots.

  5. The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AR Oates

    2017-12-01

    Full Text Available Balance control is essential for safe walking. Adding haptic input through light touch may improve walking balance; however, evidence is limited. This research investigated the effect of added haptic input through light touch in healthy young adults during challenging walking conditions. Sixteen individuals walked normally, in tandem, and on a compliant, low-lying balance beam with and without light touch on a railing. Three-dimensional kinematic data were captured to compute stride velocity (m/s, relative time spent in double support (%DS, a medial-lateral margin of stability (MOSML and its variance (MOSMLCV, as well as a symmetry index (SI for the MOSML. Muscle activity was evaluated by integrating electromyography signals for the soleus, tibialis anterior, and gluteus medius muscles bilaterally. Adding haptic input decreased stride velocity, increased the %DS, had no effect on the MOSML magnitude, decreased the MOSMLCV, had no effect on the SI, and increased activity of most muscles examined during normal walking. During tandem walking, stride velocity and the MOSMLCV decreased, while %DS, MOSML magnitude, SI, and muscle activity did not change with light touch. When walking on a low-lying, compliant balance beam, light touch had no effect on walking velocity, MOSML magnitude, or muscle activity; however, the %DS increased and the MOSMLCV and SI decreased when lightly touching a railing while walking on the balance beam. The decreases in the MOSMLCV with light touch across all walking conditions suggest that adding haptic input through light touch on a railing may improve balance control during walking through reduced variability.

  6. [Assessment strategies of the impact of healing touch in nursing care].

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hentz, F; Mulliez, A; Belgacem, B; Noirfalise, C; Barrier, H; Gorrand, J; Paniagua, C c; Mathé, B; Gerbaud, L

    2009-06-01

    New care methods have emerged in the last few years. Healing Touch is relaxing and as such, helps prepare the patient for the medical act, the pain of which he may often feel anxious about As they foster confidence between the patient and the medical practitioner, such practices create better conditions for the medical care act to be performed. Even if there is no doubt about its impact on the patient, the effect of Healing Touch has never been scientifically assessed, and the only available references are rather scarce. This is the reason why we wished to assess the impact of this care in a number of clinical situations through a randomised clinical experiment. The object of this paper is to assert the efficacy of such care on the patient, especially on pain relief and the decrease of anxiety. To this end, authenticated assessment scales were used, such as the visual analog pain scale or Spielberg's test anxiety inventory. A prospective multicentre randomised study was carried out to create a control group to be compared to the group treated with Healing Touch. Only willing patients who were prescribed healing touch were included in the experiment. Patients with cognitive problems - be they temporary (linked to a temporary clinical conditions) or not - or those suffering from some disabilities preventing them from using assessment scales and questionnaires are excluded. The recruitment of a 784-patient panel was needed to set out the 8 situations in which a Healing Touch indication may be effective.

  7. iPod touch-assisted instrumentation of the spine: a technical report.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Jost, Gregory F; Bisson, Erica F; Schmidt, Meic H

    2013-12-01

    Instrumentation of the spine depends on choosing the correct insertion angles to implant screws. Although modern image guidance facilitates precise instrumentation of the spine, the equipment is costly and availability is limited. Although most surgeons use lateral fluoroscopy to guide instrumentation in the sagittal plane, the lateromedial angulation is often chosen by estimation. To overcome the associated uncertainty, iPod touch-based applications for measuring angles can be used to assist with screw implantation. To evaluate the use of the iPod touch to adjust instruments to the optimal axial insertion angle for placement of pedicle screws in the lumbar spine. Twenty lumbar pedicle screws in 5 consecutive patients were implanted using the iPod touch. The lateromedial angulation was measured on preoperative images and reproduced in the operative field with the iPod touch. The instruments to implant the screws were aligned with the side of the iPod for screw insertion. Actual screw angles were remeasured on postoperative imaging. We collected demographic, clinical, and operative data for each patient. In 16 of 20 screws, the accuracy of implantation was within 3 degrees of the ideal trajectory. The 4 screws with an angle mismatch of 7 to 13 degrees were all implanted at the caudal end of the exposure, where maintaining the planned angulation was impeded by strong muscles pushing medially. iPod touch-assisted instrumentation of the spine is a very simple technique, which, in combination with a lateral fluoroscopy, may guide placement of pedicle screws in the lumbar spine.

  8. Using NFC technology for fast-tracking large-siza multi-touch screens

    OpenAIRE

    Muñoz-Organero, Mario; Opoku, Samuel King

    2011-01-01

    Multi-touch technology interfaces are becoming ubiquitous since their integration in smart-phones, tablets and many consumer electronics devices. Depending on the size of the tangible interface, the computing resource restrictions and the resolution required, there are different technological alternatives for multi-touch screens such as camera based systems, capacity, resistive or pressure sensing systems or LED based systems. This paper presents a different alternative to d...

  9. Touch Screen Technology Adoption and Utilisation by Educators in Early Childhood Educational Institutions

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Plumb, Melinda; Kautz, Karlheinz; Tootell, Holly

    2013-01-01

    The adoption of information and communication technology (ICT) in early childhood educational settings, in particular touch screen technology such as interactive whiteboards and tablet computing devices has potential for use within early childhood educational institutions. We conducted a literature...... that can support the successful implementation of touch screen technology within early childhood educational institutions....... in regards to touch screen technology in early childhood, particularly from a process perspective, and suggest that further research is required to understand the interplay between individual actions and organisational structural influences. This will contribute to the development of an understanding...

  10. A High Optical Transmittance and Low Cost Touch Screen without Patterning

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    SAMADZAMINI, K.

    2017-02-01

    Full Text Available Transparent Conducting Oxide (TCO materials such as Fluorine Tin Oxide (FTO and Indium Tin Oxide (ITO due to their optical and electrical properties are used in touch screens as electrodes and wires. This paper proposes a novel technique of using Electrical Resistivity Tomography (ERT method in order to produce touch screens without pattering. Unlike existing techniques, the proposed methodology employs a uniform TCO coated screen with a maximum optical transmittance to convert the touch point coordinates into side electrodes voltages. The performance of the proposed method is tested experimentally on a FTO coated glass with a sheet resistance of 20 ohms/sq. The proposed methodology is found to be less complicated and low cost, since no pattern or electrodes are implemented in the display area.

  11. A novel flexible capacitive touch pad based on graphene oxide film

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, He; Yang, Yi; Xie, Dan; Ren, Tian-Ling; Shu, Yi; Zhou, Chang-Jian; Sun, Hui; Liu, Xuan; Zhang, Cang-Hai

    2013-01-01

    Recently, graphene oxide (GO) supercapacitors with ultra-high energy densities have received significant attention. In addition to energy storage, GO capacitors might also have broad applications in renewable energy engineering, such as vibration and sound energy harvesting. Here, we experimentally create a macroscopic flexible capacitive touch pad based on GO film. An obvious touch ``ON'' to ``OFF'' voltage ratio up to ~60 has been observed. Moreover, we tested the capacitor structure on both flat and curved surfaces and it showed high response sensitivity under fast touch rates. Collectively, our results raise the exciting prospect that the realization of macroscopic flexible keyboards with large-area graphene based materials is technologically feasible, which may open up important applications in control and interface design for solar cells, speakers, supercapacitors, batteries and MEMS systems.

  12. A novel flexible capacitive touch pad based on graphene oxide film.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tian, He; Yang, Yi; Xie, Dan; Ren, Tian-Ling; Shu, Yi; Zhou, Chang-Jian; Sun, Hui; Liu, Xuan; Zhang, Cang-Hai

    2013-02-07

    Recently, graphene oxide (GO) supercapacitors with ultra-high energy densities have received significant attention. In addition to energy storage, GO capacitors might also have broad applications in renewable energy engineering, such as vibration and sound energy harvesting. Here, we experimentally create a macroscopic flexible capacitive touch pad based on GO film. An obvious touch "ON" to "OFF" voltage ratio up to ∼60 has been observed. Moreover, we tested the capacitor structure on both flat and curved surfaces and it showed high response sensitivity under fast touch rates. Collectively, our results raise the exciting prospect that the realization of macroscopic flexible keyboards with large-area graphene based materials is technologically feasible, which may open up important applications in control and interface design for solar cells, speakers, supercapacitors, batteries and MEMS systems.

  13. Investigation of the touch sensitivity of ER fluid based tactile display

    Science.gov (United States)

    Liu, Yanju; Davidson, Rob; Taylor, Paul

    2005-05-01

    A tactile display is programmable device whose controlled surface is intended to be investigated by human touch. It has a great number of potential applications in the field of virtual reality and elsewhere. In this research, a 5x5 touch sensitive tactile display array including electrorheological (ER) fluid has been developed and investigated. Experimental results show that the sensed surface information could be controlled effectively by adjusting the voltage activation pattern imposed on the tactels. In the meantime, it is possible to sense the touching force normal to the display"s surface by monitoring the change of current passing through the ER fluid. These encouraging results are helpful for constructing a new type of tactile display based on ER fluid which can act as both sensor and actuator at the same time.

  14. Multi-Touch Tables and Collaborative Learning

    Science.gov (United States)

    Higgins, Steve; Mercier, Emma; Burd, Liz; Joyce-Gibbons, Andrew

    2012-01-01

    The development of multi-touch tables, an emerging technology for classroom learning, offers valuable opportunities to explore how its features can be designed to support effective collaboration in schools. In this study, small groups of 10- to 11-year-old children undertook a history task where they had to connect various pieces of information…

  15. Study of the tactile perception of bathroom tissues: Comparison between the sensory evaluation by a handfeel panel and a tribo-acoustic artificial finger.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thieulin, C; Pailler-Mattei, C; Vargiolu, R; Lancelot, S; Zahouani, H

    2017-02-01

    Tactile perception is one of the sensorial modes most stimulated by our daily environment. In particular, perceived softness is an important parameter for judging the sensory quality of surfaces and fabrics. Unfortunately, its assessment greatly depends on the tactile sense of each person, which in turn depends on many factors. Currently, the predominant method for evaluating the tactile perception of fabrics is the human handfeel panel. This qualitative approach does not permit the quantitative measure of touch feel perception. In this study, we present a new artificial finger device to investigate the tactile sensing of ten bathroom tissues. It enables simultaneously measuring the friction and vibrations caused when sliding an artificial finger on the surface of the tissue. The comparison between the results obtained with the artificial finger and the tactile perception evaluated using a handfeel panel showed that the artificial finger is able to separate the two parts of the tactile perception of bathroom tissues: softness and surface texture (velvetiness). The statistical analysis suggests that there is a good correlation between the vibrations measured with the artificial finger and the softness evaluated by the panel. It then shows that the friction measured by the artificial finger is related to the surface texture of a bathroom tissue. The ability of the artificial finger to mimic human touch is demonstrated. Finally, a Principal Component Analysis orders the signatures of the tactile perception of the bathroom tissues in four different groups. Copyright © 2016. Published by Elsevier B.V.

  16. Food as Touch/Touching the Food: The Body In-Place and Out-of-Place in Preschool

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rossholt, Nina

    2012-01-01

    The article explores the need to eat as a biological and social practice among children in a preschool in Norway. The children in this preschool are aged from one to two years of age, and some of them have just started there. Different events from mealtimes relate to Derrida's concept of touch and Grosz's notion of bodies in-place and…

  17. Touch-mode capacitive pressure sensor with graphene-polymer heterostructure membrane

    Science.gov (United States)

    Berger, Christian; Phillips, Rory; Pasternak, Iwona; Sobieski, Jan; Strupinski, Wlodek; Vijayaraghavan, Aravind

    2018-01-01

    We describe the fabrication and characterisation of a touch-mode capacitive pressure sensor (TMCPS) with a robust design that comprises a graphene-polymer heterostructure film, laminated onto the silicon dioxide surface of a silicon wafer, incorporating a SU-8 spacer grid structure. The spacer grid structure allows the flexible graphene-polymer film to be partially suspended above the substrate, such that a pressure on the membrane results in a reproducible deflection, even after exposing the membrane to pressures over 10 times the operating range. Sensors show reproducible pressure transduction in water submersion at varying depths under static and dynamic loading. The measured capacitance change in response to pressure is in good agreement with an analytical model of clamped plates in touch mode. The device shows a pressure sensitivity of 27.1 +/- 0.5 fF Pa-1 over a pressure range of 0.5 kPa-8.5 kPa. In addition, we demonstrate the operation of this device as a force-touch sensor in air.

  18. An ergonomics study of thumb movements on smartphone touch screen.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Xiong, Jinghong; Muraki, Satoshi

    2014-01-01

    This study investigated the relationships between thumb muscle activity and thumb operating tasks on a smartphone touch screen with one-hand posture. Six muscles in the right thumb and forearm were targeted in this study, namely adductor pollicis, flexor pollicis brevis, abductor pollicis brevis (APB), abductor pollicis longus, first dorsal interosseous (FDI) and extensor digitorum. The performance measures showed that the thumb developed fatigue rapidly when tapping on smaller buttons (diameter: 9 mm compared with 3 mm), and moved more slowly in flexion-extension than in adduction-abduction orientation. Meanwhile, the electromyography and perceived exertion values of FDI significantly increased in small button and flexion-extension tasks, while those of APB were greater in the adduction-abduction task. This study reveals that muscle effort among thumb muscles on a touch screen smartphone varies according to the task, and suggests that the use of small touch buttons should be minimised for better thumb performance.

  19. The Role of Interactional Quality in Learning from Touch Screens during Infancy: Context Matters

    OpenAIRE

    Zack, Elizabeth; Barr, Rachel

    2016-01-01

    Interactional quality has been shown to enhance learning during book reading and play, but has not been examined during touch screen use. Learning to apply knowledge from a touch screen is complex for infants because it involves transfer of learning between a 2-dimensional (2D) screen and 3-dimensional (3D) object in the physical world. This study uses a touch screen procedure to examine interactional quality measured via maternal structuring, diversity of maternal language, and dyadic emot...

  20. Transparent conductive-polymer strain sensors for touch input sheets of flexible displays

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Takamatsu, Seiichi; Takahata, Tomoyuki; Muraki, Masato; Iwase, Eiji; Matsumoto, Kiyoshi; Shimoyama, Isao

    2010-01-01

    A transparent conductive polymer-based strain-sensor array, designed especially for touch input sheets of flexible displays, was developed. A transparent conductive polymer, namely poly(3, 4-ethylenedioxythiophene):polystyrenesulfonate (PEDOT:PSS), was utilized owing to its strength under repeated mechanical bending. PEDOT:PSS strain sensors with a thickness of 130 nm exhibited light transmittance of 92%, which is the same as the transmittance of ITO electrodes widely used in flat panel displays. We demonstrated that the sensor array on a flexible sheet was able to sustain mechanical bending 300 times at a bending radius of 5 mm. The strain sensor shows a gauge factor of 5.2. The touch point on a flexible sheet could be detected from histograms of the outputs of the strain sensors when the sheet was pushed with an input force of 5 N. The touch input could be detected on the flexible sheet with a curved surface (radius of curvature of 20 mm). These results show that the developed transparent conductive polymer-based strain-sensor array is applicable to touch input sheets of mechanically bendable displays.

  1. The effect of light touch on balance control during overground walking in healthy young adults.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Oates, A R; Unger, J; Arnold, C M; Fung, J; Lanovaz, J L

    2017-12-01

    Balance control is essential for safe walking. Adding haptic input through light touch may improve walking balance; however, evidence is limited. This research investigated the effect of added haptic input through light touch in healthy young adults during challenging walking conditions. Sixteen individuals walked normally, in tandem, and on a compliant, low-lying balance beam with and without light touch on a railing. Three-dimensional kinematic data were captured to compute stride velocity (m/s), relative time spent in double support (%DS), a medial-lateral margin of stability (MOS ML ) and its variance (MOS ML CV), as well as a symmetry index (SI) for the MOS ML . Muscle activity was evaluated by integrating electromyography signals for the soleus, tibialis anterior, and gluteus medius muscles bilaterally. Adding haptic input decreased stride velocity, increased the %DS, had no effect on the MOS ML magnitude, decreased the MOS ML CV, had no effect on the SI, and increased activity of most muscles examined during normal walking. During tandem walking, stride velocity and the MOS ML CV decreased, while %DS, MOS ML magnitude, SI, and muscle activity did not change with light touch. When walking on a low-lying, compliant balance beam, light touch had no effect on walking velocity, MOS ML magnitude, or muscle activity; however, the %DS increased and the MOS ML CV and SI decreased when lightly touching a railing while walking on the balance beam. The decreases in the MOS ML CV with light touch across all walking conditions suggest that adding haptic input through light touch on a railing may improve balance control during walking through reduced variability.

  2. Clear signals or mixed messages: inter-individual emotion congruency modulates brain activity underlying affective body perception.

    Science.gov (United States)

    de Borst, A W; de Gelder, B

    2016-08-01

    The neural basis of emotion perception has mostly been investigated with single face or body stimuli. However, in daily life one may also encounter affective expressions by groups, e.g. an angry mob or an exhilarated concert crowd. In what way is brain activity modulated when several individuals express similar rather than different emotions? We investigated this question using an experimental design in which we presented two stimuli simultaneously, with same or different emotional expressions. We hypothesized that, in the case of two same-emotion stimuli, brain activity would be enhanced, while in the case of two different emotions, one emotion would interfere with the effect of the other. The results showed that the simultaneous perception of different affective body expressions leads to a deactivation of the amygdala and a reduction of cortical activity. It was revealed that the processing of fearful bodies, compared with different-emotion bodies, relied more strongly on saliency and action triggering regions in inferior parietal lobe and insula, while happy bodies drove the occipito-temporal cortex more strongly. We showed that this design could be used to uncover important differences between brain networks underlying fearful and happy emotions. The enhancement of brain activity for unambiguous affective signals expressed by several people simultaneously supports adaptive behaviour in critical situations. © The Author (2016). Published by Oxford University Press. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

  3. Reduced graphene oxide filled poly(dimethyl siloxane) based transparent stretchable, and touch-responsive sensors

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ponnamma, Deepalekshmi; Sadasivuni, Kishor Kumar; Cabibihan, John-John; Yoon, W. Jong; Kumar, Bijandra

    2016-01-01

    The ongoing revolution in touch panel technology and electronics demands the need for thin films, which are flexible, stretchable, conductive, and highly touch responsive. In this regard, conductive elastomer nanocomposites offer potential solutions for these stipulations; however, viability is limited to the poor dispersion of conductive nanomaterials such as graphene into the matrix. Here, we fabricated a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer based transparent and flexible conductive touch responsive film by dispersing rGO honeycombs uniformly into PDMS elastomer through an ionic liquid (IL) modification. Pursuing a simple, scalable, and safe method of solution casting, this provides a versatile and creative design of a transparent and stretchable rGO/IL-PDMS capacitive touch responsive, where rGO acts as a sensing element. This transparent film with ∼70% transmittance exhibits approximately a five times faster response in comparison to rGO/PDMS film, with negligible degradation over time. The performance of this touch screen film is expected to have applications in the emerging field of foldable electronics.

  4. Frequency of Maternal Touch Predicts Resting Activity and Connectivity of the Developing Social Brain.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Brauer, Jens; Xiao, Yaqiong; Poulain, Tanja; Friederici, Angela D; Schirmer, Annett

    2016-08-01

    Previous behavioral research points to a positive relationship between maternal touch and early social development. Here, we explored the brain correlates of this relationship. The frequency of maternal touch was recorded for 43 five-year-old children during a 10 min standardized play session. Additionally, all children completed a resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging session. Investigating the default mode network revealed a positive relation between the frequency of maternal touch and activity in the right posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) extending into the temporo-parietal junction. Using this effect as a seed in a functional connectivity analysis identified a network including extended bilateral regions along the temporal lobe, bilateral frontal cortex, and left insula. Compared with children with low maternal touch, children with high maternal touch showed additional connectivity with the right dorso-medial prefrontal cortex. Together these results support the notion that childhood tactile experiences shape the developing "social brain" with a particular emphasis on a network involved in mentalizing. © The Author 2016. Published by Oxford University Press.

  5. Reduced graphene oxide filled poly(dimethyl siloxane) based transparent stretchable, and touch-responsive sensors

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Ponnamma, Deepalekshmi [Center for Advanced Materials, Qatar University, P. O. Box 2713, Doha (Qatar); Sadasivuni, Kishor Kumar; Cabibihan, John-John [Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha (Qatar); Yoon, W. Jong [School of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics, University of Washington, Bothell, Washington 98011 (United States); Kumar, Bijandra, E-mail: bijandra.kumar@louisville.edu [Conn Center for Renewable Energy Research, University of Louisville, Louisville, Kentucky 40292 (United States); Research and Development Centre in Pharmaceutical Science and Applied Chemistry, Poona College of Pharmacy, Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University Erandawane, Pune 411038 (India)

    2016-04-25

    The ongoing revolution in touch panel technology and electronics demands the need for thin films, which are flexible, stretchable, conductive, and highly touch responsive. In this regard, conductive elastomer nanocomposites offer potential solutions for these stipulations; however, viability is limited to the poor dispersion of conductive nanomaterials such as graphene into the matrix. Here, we fabricated a reduced graphene oxide (rGO) and poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) elastomer based transparent and flexible conductive touch responsive film by dispersing rGO honeycombs uniformly into PDMS elastomer through an ionic liquid (IL) modification. Pursuing a simple, scalable, and safe method of solution casting, this provides a versatile and creative design of a transparent and stretchable rGO/IL-PDMS capacitive touch responsive, where rGO acts as a sensing element. This transparent film with ∼70% transmittance exhibits approximately a five times faster response in comparison to rGO/PDMS film, with negligible degradation over time. The performance of this touch screen film is expected to have applications in the emerging field of foldable electronics.

  6. System reliability evaluation of a touch panel manufacturing system with defect rate and reworking

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Lin, Yi-Kuei; Huang, Cheng-Fu; Chang, Ping-Chen

    2013-01-01

    In recent years, portable consumer electronic products, such as cell phone, GPS, digital camera, tablet PC, and notebook are using touch panel as interface. With the demand of touch panel increases, performance assessment is essential for touch panel production. This paper develops a method to evaluate system reliability of a touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS) with defect rate of each workstation and takes reworking actions into account. The system reliability which evaluates the possibility of demand satisfaction can provide to managers with an understanding of the system capability and can indicate possible improvements. First, we construct a capacitated manufacturing network (CMN) for a TPMS. Second, a decomposition technique is developed to determine the input flow of each workstation based on the CMN. Finally, we generate the minimal capacity vectors that should be provided to satisfy the demand. The system reliability is subsequently evaluated in terms of the minimal capacity vectors. A further decision making issue is discussed to decide a reliable production strategy. -- Graphical abstract: The proposed procedure to evaluate system reliability of the touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS). Highlights: • The system reliability of a touch panel manufacturing system (TPMS) is evaluated. • The reworking actions are taken into account in the TPMS. • A capacitated manufacturing network is constructed for the TPMS. • A procedure is proposed to evaluate system reliability of TPMS

  7. Huggy Pajama: A Remote Interactive Touch and Hugging System

    Science.gov (United States)

    Cheok, Adrian David

    Huggy Pajama is a novel wearable system aimed at promoting physical interaction in remote communication between parent and child. This system enables parents and children to hug one another through a hugging interface device and a wearable, hug reproducing pajama connected through the Internet. The hug input device is a small, mobile doll with an embedded pressure sensing circuit that is able to accurately sense varying levels of pressure along the range of human touch produced from natural touch. This device sends hug signals to a haptic jacket that simulates the feeling of being hugged to the wearer. It features air pocket actuators that reproduce hug sensations, heating elements to produce warmth that accompanies hugs, and a color changing pattern and accessory to indicate distance of separation and communicate expressions. In this chapter, we present the system design of Huggy Pajama. We also show results from quantitative and qualitative user studies which show the effectiveness of the system simulating an actual human touch. Results also indicate an increased sense of presence between parents and children when used as an added component to instant messaging and video chat communication.

  8. RECOGNITION AND VERIFICATION OF TOUCHING HANDWRITTEN NUMERALS

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Zhou, J.; Kryzak, A.; Suen, C.Y.

    2004-01-01

    In the field of financial document processing, recognition of touching handwritten numerals has been limited by lack of good benchmarking databases and low reliability of algorithms. This paper addresses the efforts toward solving the two problems. Two databases IRIS-Bell\\\\\\'98 and TNIST are

  9. Analysis of small deflection touch mode behavior in capacitive pressure sensors

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Fragiacomo, Giulio; Ansbæk, Thor; Pedersen, Thomas

    2010-01-01

    Due to an increasing need for devices with low power consumption, capacitive pressure sensors have become good substitutes for the well known piezoresistive pressure sensors. Mathematical models are necessary to design and characterize the device, preferably the model is analytical...... such that geometrical scalings are revealed. We show that, in the case of linear elastic behavior, a simple analytical model can be found for a touch mode capacitive pressure sensor (TMCPS). With this model it is possible to readily evaluate the main features of a TMCPS such as: sensitivity (both in normal and touch...... mode), touch point pressure and parasitic capacitance. Therefore, the desired device can be designed without using finite element modeling (FEM). This reduces the effort needed to design a micromachined TMCPS. Finally, the model has been compared with a micromachined TMCPS showing an excellent...

  10. Short-term memory affects color perception in context.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R

    2014-01-01

    Color-based object selection - for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market - places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly.

  11. Short-term memory affects color perception in context.

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Maria Olkkonen

    Full Text Available Color-based object selection - for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market - places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly.

  12. Short-Term Memory Affects Color Perception in Context

    Science.gov (United States)

    Olkkonen, Maria; Allred, Sarah R.

    2014-01-01

    Color-based object selection — for instance, looking for ripe tomatoes in the market — places demands on both perceptual and memory processes: it is necessary to form a stable perceptual estimate of surface color from a variable visual signal, as well as to retain multiple perceptual estimates in memory while comparing objects. Nevertheless, perceptual and memory processes in the color domain are generally studied in separate research programs with the assumption that they are independent. Here, we demonstrate a strong failure of independence between color perception and memory: the effect of context on color appearance is substantially weakened by a short retention interval between a reference and test stimulus. This somewhat counterintuitive result is consistent with Bayesian estimation: as the precision of the representation of the reference surface and its context decays in memory, prior information gains more weight, causing the retained percepts to be drawn toward prior information about surface and context color. This interaction implies that to fully understand information processing in real-world color tasks, perception and memory need to be considered jointly. PMID:24475131

  13. Finger pad friction and its role in grip and touch

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Michael J.; Johnson, Simon A.; Lefèvre, Philippe; Lévesque, Vincent; Hayward, Vincent; André, Thibaut; Thonnard, Jean-Louis

    2013-01-01

    Many aspects of both grip function and tactile perception depend on complex frictional interactions occurring in the contact zone of the finger pad, which is the subject of the current review. While it is well established that friction plays a crucial role in grip function, its exact contribution for discriminatory touch involving the sliding of a finger pad is more elusive. For texture discrimination, it is clear that vibrotaction plays an important role in the discriminatory mechanisms. Among other factors, friction impacts the nature of the vibrations generated by the relative movement of the fingertip skin against a probed object. Friction also has a major influence on the perceived tactile pleasantness of a surface. The contact mechanics of a finger pad is governed by the fingerprint ridges and the sweat that is exuded from pores located on these ridges. Counterintuitively, the coefficient of friction can increase by an order of magnitude in a period of tens of seconds when in contact with an impermeably smooth surface, such as glass. In contrast, the value will decrease for a porous surface, such as paper. The increase in friction is attributed to an occlusion mechanism and can be described by first-order kinetics. Surprisingly, the sensitivity of the coefficient of friction to the normal load and sliding velocity is comparatively of second order, yet these dependencies provide the main basis of theoretical models which, to-date, largely ignore the time evolution of the frictional dynamics. One well-known effect on taction is the possibility of inducing stick–slip if the friction decreases with increasing sliding velocity. Moreover, the initial slip of a finger pad occurs by the propagation of an annulus of failure from the perimeter of the contact zone and this phenomenon could be important in tactile perception and grip function. PMID:23256185

  14. Finger pad friction and its role in grip and touch.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Adams, Michael J; Johnson, Simon A; Lefèvre, Philippe; Lévesque, Vincent; Hayward, Vincent; André, Thibaut; Thonnard, Jean-Louis

    2013-03-06

    Many aspects of both grip function and tactile perception depend on complex frictional interactions occurring in the contact zone of the finger pad, which is the subject of the current review. While it is well established that friction plays a crucial role in grip function, its exact contribution for discriminatory touch involving the sliding of a finger pad is more elusive. For texture discrimination, it is clear that vibrotaction plays an important role in the discriminatory mechanisms. Among other factors, friction impacts the nature of the vibrations generated by the relative movement of the fingertip skin against a probed object. Friction also has a major influence on the perceived tactile pleasantness of a surface. The contact mechanics of a finger pad is governed by the fingerprint ridges and the sweat that is exuded from pores located on these ridges. Counterintuitively, the coefficient of friction can increase by an order of magnitude in a period of tens of seconds when in contact with an impermeably smooth surface, such as glass. In contrast, the value will decrease for a porous surface, such as paper. The increase in friction is attributed to an occlusion mechanism and can be described by first-order kinetics. Surprisingly, the sensitivity of the coefficient of friction to the normal load and sliding velocity is comparatively of second order, yet these dependencies provide the main basis of theoretical models which, to-date, largely ignore the time evolution of the frictional dynamics. One well-known effect on taction is the possibility of inducing stick-slip if the friction decreases with increasing sliding velocity. Moreover, the initial slip of a finger pad occurs by the propagation of an annulus of failure from the perimeter of the contact zone and this phenomenon could be important in tactile perception and grip function.

  15. Using enzyme folding to explore the mechanism of therapeutic touch: a feasibility study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Strickland, Mallory L; Boylan, Helen M

    2010-07-01

    The goal of this research is to design a novel model using protein folding to study Therapeutic Touch, a noncontact form of energy manipulation healing. Presented is a feasibility study suggesting that the denaturation path of ribonuclease A may be a useful model to study the energy exchange underlying therapeutic touch. The folding of ribonuclease A serves as a controlled energy-requiring system in which energy manipulation can be measured by the degree of folding achieved. A kinetic assay and fluorescence spectroscopy are used to assess the enzyme-folding state. The data suggest that the kinetic assay is a useful means of assessing the degree of refolding, and specifically, the enzyme function. However, fluorescence spectroscopy was not shown to be an effective measurement of enzyme structure for the purposes of this work. More research is needed to assess the underlying mechanism of therapeutic touch to complement the existing studies. An enzyme-folding model may provide a useful means of studying the energy exchange in therapeutic touch.

  16. High affective risk perception is associated with more lung cancer-specific distress in CT screening for lung cancer

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Bunge, Eveline M.; van den Bergh, Karien A. M.; Essink-Bot, Marie-Louise; van Klaveren, Rob J.; de Koning, Harry J.

    2008-01-01

    Screening for cancer can cause distress. People who perceive their risk of cancer as high may be more vulnerable to distress. This study evaluated whether participants of a lung cancer Computed Tomography (CT) screening trial with a high affective risk perception of developing lung cancer had a

  17. What Can We Say about 112,000 Taps on a Ndjebbana Touch Screen?

    Science.gov (United States)

    Auld, Glenn

    2002-01-01

    In a remote Aboriginal Australian (Kunibidji) community, three touch-screen computers containing 96 Ndjebbana-language talking books were made available to children in informal settings. The computers' popularity is explained by the touch screens' form and the talking books' intertextual and hybrid nature. The Kunibidji are transforming their…

  18. Therapeutic touch is not therapeutic for procedural pain in very preterm neonates: a randomized trial.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Johnston, Celeste; Campbell-Yeo, Marsha; Rich, Bonnie; Whitley, Julie; Filion, Francoise; Cogan, Jennifer; Walker, Claire-Dominique

    2013-09-01

    Preterm neonates below 30 weeks' gestational age undergo numerous painful procedures. Many management approaches are not appropriate for this population. Therapeutic Touch, an alternative approach based on the theory of energy medicine, has been shown to promote physiological stability in preterm neonates and reduce pain in some adult studies. The objective was to determine whether Therapeutic Touch is efficacious in decreasing pain in preterm neonates. Infants Touch (n = 27) with infant behind curtains, leaving the curtained area for the heel lance, performed by another. In the sham condition (n = 28), the therapist stood by the incubator with hands by her side. The Premature Infant Pain Profile was used for pain response and time for heart rate to return to baseline for recovery. Heart rate variability and stress response were secondary outcomes. There were no group differences in any of the outcomes. Mean Premature Infant Pain Profile scores across 2 minutes of heel lance procedure in 30-second blocks ranged from 7.92 to 8.98 in the Therapeutic Touch group and 7.64 to 8.46 in the sham group. Therapeutic Touch given immediately before and after heel lance has no comforting effect in preterm neonates. Other effective strategies involving actual touch should be considered.

  19. Shear wave velocity measurements for differential diagnosis of solid breast masses: a comparison between virtual touch quantification and virtual touch IQ.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tozaki, Mitsuhiro; Saito, Masahiro; Benson, John; Fan, Liexiang; Isobe, Sachiko

    2013-12-01

    This study compared the diagnostic performance of two shear wave speed measurement techniques in 81 patients with 83 solid breast lesions. Virtual Touch Quantification, which provides single-point shear wave speed measurement capability (SP-SWS), was compared with Virtual Touch IQ, a new 2-D shear wave imaging technique with multi-point shear wave speed measurement capability (2D-SWS). With SP-SWS, shear wave velocity was measured within the lesion ("internal" value) and the marginal areas ("marginal" value). With 2D-SWS, the highest velocity was measured. The marginal values obtained with the SP-SWS and 2D-SWS methods were significantly higher for malignant lesions and benign lesions, respectively (p breast masses. Copyright © 2013 World Federation for Ultrasound in Medicine & Biology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  20. Bacteria contamination of touch surfaces in Polish hospital wards

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Anna Różańska

    2017-08-01

    Full Text Available Background: The objective of the study has been to evaluate the pathogenic bacteria contamination of touch surfaces in hospital wards. Material and Methods: Samples were taken from frequently touched surfaces in the hospital environment in 13 units of various types. Culturing was carried out on solid blood agar and in growth broth (tryptic soy broth – TSB. Species identification was performed using the analytical profile index (API biochemical testing and confirmed with matrix assisted laser desorption ionization time-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF-MS system. Results: The total of 161 samples were taken for the study. Fifty-two of them, after 24 h of culture on a solid medium, demonstrated bacterial growth and further 60 samples had growth after prior multiplication in TSB. Overall, 69.6% of samples exhibited growth of 19 bacterial species. Pathogenic species – representing indicator organisms of efficiency of hospital cleaning – was demonstrated by 21.4% of samples. Among them Acinetobacter spp., Enterocococci spp. and Staphylococcus aureus were identified. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS were predominant. The proportion of various groups of bacteria significantly varied in respective hospitals, and in various types of wards. Disturbing observation is a large proportion of resistance of isolated CNS strains as a potential reservoir of resistance genes. Conclusions: The results show that touch surfaces in hospital units are contaminated by both potentially pathogenic and pathogenic bacterial species. In connection with the reported, also in Poland, frequent omission or incorrect execution of hand hygiene by hospital staff, and probably patients, touch surfaces still constitute important reservoir of pathogenic bacteria. Improving hand hygiene compliance of health-care workers with recommendations is necessary for increasing biological safety of hospital environment. Med Pr 2017;68(3:459–467

  1. Reconhecimento dos aspectos tacêsicos para o cuidado afetivo e de qualidade ao idoso hospitalizado Reconocimiento de los aspectos de lenguaje del tacto para el cuidado afectivo y de calidad al anciano hospitalizado An approach to touching while providing high-quality affective health care to hospitalized elderly patients

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Teresa Cristina Gioia Schimidt

    2013-04-01

    , revela la calidad de atención prestada.The aim of the present study was to verify the important factors of tacesics that should be observed while touching the elderly. This qualitative and exploratory field of study was developed using 117 undergraduate students and healthcare professionals who participated in a training course regarding nonverbal communication in gerontology. The results revealed that the majority of the participants were able to identify at least one care factor that must be respected when touching the elderly. The discourses allowed for the construction of nine categories indicating the conditions that are necessary for high-quality affective care provided within the tacesics context; these conditions included the authorization for the touch to occur, location of the touch, intensity of the touch, condition of the elderly person, intentionality and type of touch, duration of the touch, gender and age of the person who touches and of the person being touched, frequency of the touch, and characteristics of the hands that touch. Touch is part of the quotidian practice of healthcare professionals and expresses their dedication and its related emotions, thereby revealing the quality of the care that is provided.

  2. Simulated Social Touch in a Collaborative Game

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Huisman, Gijs; Kolkmeijer, Jan; Heylen, Dirk; Auvray, Malika; Duriez, Christian

    In this paper we present a study in which participants played a collaborative augmented reality game together with two virtual agents, visible in the same augmented reality space. During interaction one of the virtual agents touches the user on the arm, by means of a vibrotactile display. We

  3. Quantum theory and human perception of the macro-world.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Aerts, Diederik

    2014-01-01

    We investigate the question of 'why customary macroscopic entities appear to us humans as they do, i.e., as bounded entities occupying space and persisting through time', starting from our knowledge of quantum theory, how it affects the behavior of such customary macroscopic entities, and how it influences our perception of them. For this purpose, we approach the question from three perspectives. Firstly, we look at the situation from the standard quantum angle, more specifically the de Broglie wavelength analysis of the behavior of macroscopic entities, indicate how a problem with spin and identity arises, and illustrate how both play a fundamental role in well-established experimental quantum-macroscopical phenomena, such as Bose-Einstein condensates. Secondly, we analyze how the question is influenced by our result in axiomatic quantum theory, which proves that standard quantum theory is structurally incapable of describing separated entities. Thirdly, we put forward our new 'conceptual quantum interpretation', including a highly detailed reformulation of the question to confront the new insights and views that arise with the foregoing analysis. At the end of the final section, a nuanced answer is given that can be summarized as follows. The specific and very classical perception of human seeing-light as a geometric theory-and human touching-only ruled by Pauli's exclusion principle-plays a role in our perception of macroscopic entities as ontologically stable entities in space. To ascertain quantum behavior in such macroscopic entities, we will need measuring apparatuses capable of its detection. Future experimental research will have to show if sharp quantum effects-as they occur in smaller entities-appear to be ontological aspects of customary macroscopic entities. It remains a possibility that standard quantum theory is an incomplete theory, and hence incapable of coping ultimately with separated entities, meaning that a more general theory will be needed.

  4. Quantum Theory and Human Perception of the Macro-World

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Diederik eAerts

    2014-06-01

    Full Text Available We investigate the question of 'why customary macroscopic entities appear to us humans as they do, i.e. as bounded entities occupying space and persisting through time', starting from our knowledge of quantum theory, how it affects the behavior of such customary macroscopic entities, and how it influences our perception of them. For this purpose, we approach the question from three perspectives. Firstly, we look at the situation from the standard quantum angle, more specifically the de Broglie wavelength analysis of the behavior of macroscopic entities, indicate how a problem with spin and identity arises, and illustrate how both play a fundamental role in well-established experimental quantum-macroscopical phenomena, such as Bose-Einstein condensates. Secondly, we analyze how the question is influenced by our result in axiomatic quantum theory, which proves that standard quantum theory is structurally incapable of describing separated entities. Thirdly, we put forward our new `conceptual quantum interpretation', including a highly detailed reformulation of the question to confront the new insights and views that arise with the foregoing analysis. At the end of the final section, a nuanced answer is given that can be summarized as follows. The specific and very classical perception of human seeing -- light as a geometric theory -- and human touching -- only ruled by Pauli's exclusion principle -- plays a role in our perception of macroscopic entities as ontologically stable objects in space. To ascertain quantum behavior in such macroscopic entities, we will need measuring apparatuses capable of its detection. Future experimental research will have to show if sharp quantum effects -- as they occur in smaller entities -- appear to be ontological aspects of customary macroscopic entities. It remains a possibility that standard quantum theory is an incomplete theory, and hence incapable of coping with separated entities, meaning that a more general

  5. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erk, S.M.; Toet, A.; Erp, J.B.F. van

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto

  6. Effects of mediated social touch on affective experiences and trust.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Erk, Stefanie M.; Toet, Alexander; van Erp, Johannes Bernardus Fransiscus

    2015-01-01

    This study investigated whether communication via mediated hand pressure during a remotely shared experience (watching an amusing video) can (1) enhance recovery from sadness, (2) enhance the affective quality of the experience, and (3) increase trust towards the communication partner. Thereto

  7. Feasibility of touch-less control of operating room lights.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Hartmann, Florian; Schlaefer, Alexander

    2013-03-01

    Today's highly technical operating rooms lead to fairly complex surgical workflows where the surgeon has to interact with a number of devices, including the operating room light. Hence, ideally, the surgeon could direct the light without major disruption of his work. We studied whether a gesture tracking-based control of an automated operating room light is feasible. So far, there has been little research on control approaches for operating lights. We have implemented an exemplary setup to mimic an automated light controlled by a gesture tracking system. The setup includes a articulated arm to position the light source and an off-the-shelf RGBD camera to detect the user interaction. We assessed the tracking performance using a robot-mounted hand phantom and ran a number of tests with 18 volunteers to evaluate the potential of touch-less light control. All test persons were comfortable with using the gesture-based system and quickly learned how to move a light spot on flat surface. The hand tracking error is direction-dependent and in the range of several centimeters, with a standard deviation of less than 1 mm and up to 3.5 mm orthogonal and parallel to the finger orientation, respectively. However, the subjects had no problems following even more complex paths with a width of less than 10 cm. The average speed was 0.15 m/s, and even initially slow subjects improved over time. Gestures to initiate control can be performed in approximately 2 s. Two-thirds of the subjects considered gesture control to be simple, and a majority considered it to be rather efficient. Implementation of an automated operating room light and touch-less control using an RGBD camera for gesture tracking is feasible. The remaining tracking error does not affect smooth control, and the use of the system is intuitive even for inexperienced users.

  8. Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with touching structures

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Ruan, Huo-Jun; Wang, Yang; Xi, Li-Feng

    2014-01-01

    Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets is an important area in the study of fractal geometry. It is known that two dust-like self-similar sets with the same contraction ratios are always Lipschitz equivalent. However, when self-similar sets have touching structures the problem of Lipschitz equivalence becomes much more challenging and intriguing at the same time. So far, all the known results only cover self-similar sets in R with no more than three branches. In this study we establish results for the Lipschitz equivalence of self-similar sets with touching structures in R with arbitrarily many branches. Key to our study is the introduction of a geometric condition for self-similar sets called substitutable. (paper)

  9. Effects of Therapeutic Touch on Healing of the Skin in Rats.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Thomaz de Souza, André Luiz; Carvalho Rosa, David Patrick; Blanco, Bruno Anjos; Passaglia, Patrícia; Stabile, Angelita Maria

    Therapeutic touch is a complementary treatment directed toward the balance of the energy field surrounding living beings. This study's aim was to investigate the effect of therapeutic touch on wound area contraction and fibroblast proliferation in rat skin. This study was conducted using 24 male Wistar rats with dorsal wounds of diameter 8mm. The rats were divided into the following two groups: a control group: in this, the wounds were sanitized with filtered water and neutral-pH soap and a treatment group: in this, the wounds were sanitized as in the control group but the rats also underwent to daily sessions of therapeutic touch. Wound area was measured on days 1, 4, and 7 using imagelab software, version 2.4 R.C. On days 4 and 7, six animals in each group were euthanized so that the lesioned tissue could be collected for fibroblast counts and histological evaluations. On days 1 and 4, wound areas were similar in both groups. Moreover, no significant differences in fibroblast counts were observed on day 4. On day 7, however, fibroblast counts were significantly higher in the treated group than in the control group, with a subsequent wound shrinkage. These data indicate that therapeutic touch may accelerate wound repair, possibly by increasing fibroblast activity. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  10. The nonvisual illusion of self-touch: Misaligned hands and anatomical implausibility.

    Science.gov (United States)

    White, Rebekah C; Weinberg, Jennifer L; Aimola Davies, Anne M

    2015-01-01

    The self-touch illusion is elicited when the participant (with eyes closed) administers brushstrokes to a prosthetic hand while the examiner administers synchronous brushstrokes to the participant's other (receptive) hand. In three experiments we investigated the effects of misalignment on the self-touch illusion. In experiment 1 we manipulated alignment (0 degrees, 45 degrees, 90 degrees, 135 degrees, 180 degrees) of the prosthetic hand relative to the participant's receptive hand. The illusion was equally strong at 0 degrees and 45 degrees: the two conditions in which the prosthetic hand was in an anatomically plausible orientation. To investigate whether the illusion was diminished at 90 degrees (and beyond) by anatomical implausibility rather than by misalignment, in experiment 2 hand positioning was changed. The illusion was equally strong at 0 degrees, 45 degrees, and 90 degrees, but diminished at 135 degrees despite the prosthetic hand now being in an anatomically plausible orientation. Thus the illusion is diminished with misalignment of 135 degrees, irrespective of anatomical plausibility. Having demonstrated that the illusion was equally strong with the hands aligned (0 degrees) or misaligned by 45 degrees, in experiment 3 we demonstrated that participants did not detect a 45 degrees misalignment. Large degrees of misalignment prevent a compelling experience of the self-touch illusion, and the self-touch illusion prevents detection of small degrees of misalignment.

  11. Musically induced arousal affects pain perception in females but not in males: a psychophysiological examination.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kenntner-Mabiala, Ramona; Gorges, Susanne; Alpers, Georg W; Lehmann, Andreas C; Pauli, Paul

    2007-04-01

    The present study investigated affective and physiological responses to changes of tempo and mode in classical music and their effects on heat pain perception. Thirty-eight healthy non-musicians (17 female) listened to sequences of 24 music stimuli which were variations of 4 pieces of classical music. Tempo (46, 60, and 95 beats/min) and mode (major and minor) were manipulated digitally, all other musical elements were held constant. Participants rated valence, arousal, happiness and sadness of the musical stimuli as well as the intensity and the unpleasantness of heat pain stimuli which were applied during music listening. Heart rate, respiratory rate and end-tidal PCO(2) were recorded. Pain ratings were highest for the fastest tempo. Also, participants' arousal ratings, their respiratory rate and heart rate were accelerated by the fastest tempo. The modulation of pain perception by the tempo of music seems to be mediated by the listener's arousal.

  12. Top-down control of visual perception: attention in natural vision.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Rolls, Edmund T

    2008-01-01

    Top-down perceptual influences can bias (or pre-empt) perception. In natural scenes, the receptive fields of neurons in the inferior temporal visual cortex (IT) shrink to become close to the size of objects. This facilitates the read-out of information from the ventral visual system, because the information is primarily about the object at the fovea. Top-down attentional influences are much less evident in natural scenes than when objects are shown against blank backgrounds, though are still present. It is suggested that the reduced receptive-field size in natural scenes, and the effects of top-down attention contribute to change blindness. The receptive fields of IT neurons in complex scenes, though including the fovea, are frequently asymmetric around the fovea, and it is proposed that this is the solution the IT uses to represent multiple objects and their relative spatial positions in a scene. Networks that implement probabilistic decision-making are described, and it is suggested that, when in perceptual systems they take decisions (or 'test hypotheses'), they influence lower-level networks to bias visual perception. Finally, it is shown that similar processes extend to systems involved in the processing of emotion-provoking sensory stimuli, in that word-level cognitive states provide top-down biasing that reaches as far down as the orbitofrontal cortex, where, at the first stage of affective representations, olfactory, taste, flavour, and touch processing is biased (or pre-empted) in humans.

  13. Touch-sensitive colour graphics enhance monitoring of loss-of-coolant accident tests

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Snedden, M.D.; Mead, G.L.

    1982-01-01

    A stand-alone computer-based system with an intelligent colour termimal is described for monitoring parameters during loss-of-coolant accident tests. Colour graphic displays and touch-sensitive control have been combined for effective operator interaction. Data collected by the host MODCOMP II minicomputer are dynamically updated on colour pictures generated by the terminal. Experimenters select system functions by touching simulated switches on a transparent touch-sensitive overlay, mounted directly over the face of the colour screen, eliminating the need for a keyboard. Switch labels and colours are changed on the screen by the terminal software as different functions are selected. Interaction is self-prompting and can be learned quickly. System operation for a complete set of 20 tests has demonstrated the convenience of interactive touchsensitive colour graphics

  14. Families Talking about Ecology at Touch Tanks

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kopczak, Charles; Kisiel, James F.; Rowe, Shawn

    2015-01-01

    Research has demonstrated that conversations among museum, aquarium, and zoo visitors can be a clear indication of active learning, engagement, and participation in scientific reasoning. This descriptive study sought to determine the extent of talk about ecology-related topics exhibited by family groups visiting marine touch tanks at four Pacific…

  15. Girls' Touch Football, Physical Education: 5551.03.

    Science.gov (United States)

    King, Kathy

    This course outline is a guide for teaching basic understanding of fundamental skills and rules of girls' touch football in grades 7-12. The course format includes lectures, demonstrations, practice of basic skills, visual aids, lead-up games, presentation and practice of officiating techniques, tournaments, and written and skills tests. Course…

  16. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Soo-Chul; Shin, Jungsoon; Kim, Seung-Chan; Park, Joonah

    2015-07-09

    Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user's hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR) line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces.

  17. Improving clinical outcomes in psychiatric care with touch-screen technology.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Newnham, Elizabeth A; Doyle, Emma L; Sng, Adelln A H; Hooke, Geoffrey R; Page, Andrew C

    2012-05-01

    Patient-focused research, which uses clinical characteristics to predict outcomes, is a field in which information technology has been effectively integrated with practice. The present research used touch-screen technology to monitor the daily self-report measures of 1,308 consecutive inpatients and day patients participating in a 2-week cognitive-behavioral therapy group. Providing regular feedback was effective in reducing symptoms for patients at risk of poor outcomes (Newnham, Hooke, & Page, 2010b). The use of touch screens in psychiatric monitoring encourages a collaborative dialogue between patients and therapists and promotes engagement in the process of progress monitoring and treatment evaluation.

  18. Multi-Touch Collaborative Gesture Recognition Based User Interfaces as Behavioral Interventions for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Review

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Hassan, A.; Shafi, M.; Khattak, M.

    2016-01-01

    This paper addresses UI (User Interface) designing based on multi-touch collaborative gesture recognition meant for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder) - affected children. The present user interfaces (in the context of behavioral interventions for Autism Spectrum disorder) are investigated in detail. Thorough comparison has been made among various groups of these UIs. Advantages and limitations of these interfaces are discussed and future directions for the design of such interfaces are suggested. (author)

  19. Nanodevice for Imaging Normal Stress Distribution With Application in Sensing Texture and Feel' by Touching

    National Research Council Canada - National Science Library

    Saraf, Ravi F; Maheshwari, Vivek

    2004-01-01

    Touch is one of the five senses designed by nature for survival. 'Touch' may (partially) be characterized as a sensory operation for measuring texture and softness of an object by mechanical contact...

  20. Determination of minimum impact parameter by modified touching spheres schemes for intermediate energy Coulomb excitation experiments

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Kumar, Rajiv; Sharma, Shagun; Singh, Pradeep; Kharab, Rajesh

    2016-01-01

    The energy-independent touching spheres schemes commonly used for the determination of the safe minimum value of the impact parameter for Coulomb excitation experiments are modified through the inclusion of an energy-dependent term. The touching spheres+3fm scheme after modification emerges out to be the best one while touching spheres+4fm scheme is found to be better in its unmodified form. (orig.)

  1. Concurrent Driving Method with Fast Scan Rate for Large Mutual Capacitance Touch Screens

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Mohamed Gamal Ahmed Mohamed

    2015-01-01

    Full Text Available A novel touch screen control technique is introduced, which scans each frame in two steps of concurrent multichannel driving and differential sensing. The proposed technique substantially increases the scan rate and reduces the ambient noise effectively. It is also extended to a multichip architecture to support excessively large touch screens with great scan rate improvement. The proposed method has been implemented using 0.18 μm CMOS TowerJazz process and tested with FPGA and AFE board connecting a 23-inch touch screen. Experimental results show a scan rate improvement of up to 23.8 times and an SNR improvement of 24.6 dB over the conventional method.

  2. The use of touch-sensitive VDUs for controlling plant and for training personnel

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Usher, D.M.

    1983-01-01

    In response to the problems raised by the increasing complexity of power generating plant, Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB) South West Region has researched new man-machine interface devices. The touch-screen, which facilitates interaction with a computer by simply touching a mimic displayed on a VDU, has emerged as a useful, versatile and acceptable operating method. CEGB personnel have expressed approval of it and their performances have been shown to be enhanced over those attained using an alternative keypad interface. The short familiarization time associated with their operation, in combination with the very great flexibility they offer the programmer, make touch screens valuable resources for training purposes, particularly for conveying basic principles. (author)

  3. Embodied terror management: interpersonal touch alleviates existential concerns among individuals with low self-esteem.

    NARCIS (Netherlands)

    Koole, S.L.; Tjew-a-Sin, Mandy; Schneider, I.K.

    2014-01-01

    Individuals with low (rather than high) self-esteem often struggle with existential concerns. In the present research, we examined whether these existential concerns may be alleviated by seemingly trivial experiences of both real and simulated interpersonal touch. A brief touch on the shoulder by a

  4. Teaching Touch Rugby in Physical Education Classes

    Science.gov (United States)

    Pugh, Steven F.; Alford, Alan

    2004-01-01

    Physical educators are always looking for new ideas that introduce moderate-to-vigorous activity, involve skill, encourage teamwork, and increase student interest. Touch rugby has the potential to contribute to these outcomes. Though the sport is not new, it is not a mainstream sport. Therefore, students see it as something new. Their motivation…

  5. High Touch in a High-Tech World

    Science.gov (United States)

    Gibson, Cindy L.

    2009-01-01

    In a world of high tech and low touch, it is easy for public relations programs to stray from tried-and-true interpersonal strategies long associated with solid communication planning. New technologies allow communications professionals to quickly send e-mails and telephone calls to selected groups. Social media sites provide users immediate…

  6. Impact of coated windows on visual perception

    DEFF Research Database (Denmark)

    Johnsen, Kjeld; Dubois, Marie-Claude

    of brightness and colours in a space. Overall, the study shows that coated glazings may moderately affect the perception details, slightly affect the perception of glare from window and do not affect the perception of shadows on and around objects in the room. The results also suggest that the perception...... of brightness and other visual aspects such as sharpness, details, character, etc., seem to be a complex function of the intensity and colour of the transmitted light and is not solely and linearly dependent on the glazing light transmittance....

  7. Business Plan Design : Green Touch

    OpenAIRE

    Govindaraju, Navaneethan; Pallati, Rakesh

    2012-01-01

    Green Touch is a start-up company in the Digital Menu arena that offers clients with an All in One Digital Technology solution and 24/7 customer support. Our goal is to offer a complete digital solution for the hospitality industry by offering state of the art technology which enables businesses to be more productive by reducing work flow for its employees and yet substantial increase profits. Digital Menus increase profits in more ways than one, WOW your guests with live images of your dishe...

  8. Virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules with coexistent chronic autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis: A preliminary study

    International Nuclear Information System (INIS)

    Han, Ruijun; Li, Fenghua; Wang, Yan; Ying, Zhiqiang; Zhang, Yun

    2015-01-01

    Highlights: • Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification could provide quantitative measurements to estimate tissue stiffness noninvasively. • Severity of Hashimoto's thyroiditis could affect stiffness of extra-nodular thyroid tissue significantly. • Shear wave velocity of malignant nodules significantly higher than that of benign nodules. • Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse imaging is useful in differential diagnosis between malignant/benign thyroid nodules with HT. - Abstract: Objectives: This study aimed at detecting whether Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification (VTQ) could be applied to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules with chronic autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). Methods: Convenient ultrasound and Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification were performed in 118 patients with 140 thyroid nodules with histology results. The HT group consisted of 46 patients with 58 nodules. The non-HT group consisted of 72 patients with 82 nodules. Results: The stiffness of extra-nodular thyroid tissue could be significantly affected by the severity of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. The shear wave velocity of thyroid benign nodules and malignant nodules did not significantly differ in the HT group as compared with the non-HT group (benign nodules: 2.13 ± 0.32 m/s vs 1.98 ± 0.48 m/s, P = 0.122; malignant nodules: 3.32 ± 0.77 m/s vs 3.30 ± 0.74 m/s, P = 0.894). In two groups, the shear wave velocity of malignant nodules is significantly higher than that of benign nodules (HT group: 3.32 ± 0.77 m/s vs 2.13 ± 0.32 m/s; non-HT group: 3.30 ± 0.74 m/s vs 1.98 ± 0.48 m/s, P < 0.001). The best cutoff point for shear wave velocity between malignant and benign thyroid nodules was 2.75 m/s. Conclusions: Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification technology could be performed in the differential diagnosis between malignant thyroid nodules and benign thyroid nodules independently from the coexistence of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis

  9. Virtual touch tissue quantification (VTQ) in the diagnosis of thyroid nodules with coexistent chronic autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis: A preliminary study

    Energy Technology Data Exchange (ETDEWEB)

    Han, Ruijun, E-mail: jine_nina@hotmail.com [Department of Ultrasound, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.1630 Dongfang Road, Shanghai 200127 (China); Li, Fenghua, E-mail: prfenghuali@126.com [Department of Ultrasound, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.1630 Dongfang Road, Shanghai 200127 (China); Wang, Yan [Department of Ultrasound, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.1630 Dongfang Road, Shanghai 200127 (China); Ying, Zhiqiang, E-mail: yingzhiqiang@126.com [Departmen of Surgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.1630 Dongfang Road, Shanghai 200127 (China); Zhang, Yun, E-mail: profzhangyun@126.com [Departmen of Surgery, Ren Ji Hospital, School of Medicine, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, No.1630 Dongfang Road, Shanghai 200127 (China)

    2015-02-15

    Highlights: • Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification could provide quantitative measurements to estimate tissue stiffness noninvasively. • Severity of Hashimoto's thyroiditis could affect stiffness of extra-nodular thyroid tissue significantly. • Shear wave velocity of malignant nodules significantly higher than that of benign nodules. • Acoustic Radiation Force Impulse imaging is useful in differential diagnosis between malignant/benign thyroid nodules with HT. - Abstract: Objectives: This study aimed at detecting whether Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification (VTQ) could be applied to differentiate between benign and malignant thyroid nodules with chronic autoimmune Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT). Methods: Convenient ultrasound and Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification were performed in 118 patients with 140 thyroid nodules with histology results. The HT group consisted of 46 patients with 58 nodules. The non-HT group consisted of 72 patients with 82 nodules. Results: The stiffness of extra-nodular thyroid tissue could be significantly affected by the severity of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis. The shear wave velocity of thyroid benign nodules and malignant nodules did not significantly differ in the HT group as compared with the non-HT group (benign nodules: 2.13 ± 0.32 m/s vs 1.98 ± 0.48 m/s, P = 0.122; malignant nodules: 3.32 ± 0.77 m/s vs 3.30 ± 0.74 m/s, P = 0.894). In two groups, the shear wave velocity of malignant nodules is significantly higher than that of benign nodules (HT group: 3.32 ± 0.77 m/s vs 2.13 ± 0.32 m/s; non-HT group: 3.30 ± 0.74 m/s vs 1.98 ± 0.48 m/s, P < 0.001). The best cutoff point for shear wave velocity between malignant and benign thyroid nodules was 2.75 m/s. Conclusions: Virtual Touch Tissue Quantification technology could be performed in the differential diagnosis between malignant thyroid nodules and benign thyroid nodules independently from the coexistence of chronic autoimmune thyroiditis.

  10. A non-invasive modality: the US virtual touch tissue quantification (VTTQ) for evaluation of breast cancer.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Tamaki, Kentaro; Tamaki, Nobumitsu; Kamada, Yoshihiko; Uehara, Kano; Miyashita, Minoru; Ishida, Takanori; Sasano, Hironobu

    2013-09-01

    We evaluated the biologic features of breast tissues using a newly developed non-invasive diagnostic system, named virtual touch tissue quantification. A total of 180 patients including 115 invasive ductal carcinoma, 30 ductal carcinoma in situ, 4 mucinous carcinoma, 7 invasive lobular carcinoma, 8 fibroadenoma, 12 fibrocystic change and 4 intraductal papilloma were studied at Nahanishi Clinic, Okinawa. We first compared the results of virtual touch tissue quantification according to each histologic subtype and determined the optimal cutoff values for virtual touch tissue quantification to distinguish benign from malignant tissues, using the receiver operating characteristic method. In addition, we also examined the correlation between virtual touch tissue quantification velocities and Ki-67, estrogen receptor, progesterone receptor or human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 in cases of invasive ductal carcinoma using linear regression analyses and Student's t-test. Virtual touch tissue quantification velocities were statistically higher in malignant cases than in benign cases (P breast cancer pathology in a non-invasive fashion.

  11. The effects of healing touch on pain, nausea, and anxiety following bariatric surgery: a pilot study.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Anderson, Joel G; Suchicital, Liliana; Lang, Maria; Kukic, Azra; Mangione, Lucrezia; Swengros, Diane; Fabian, Jennifer; Friesen, Mary Ann

    2015-01-01

    Given the growth in the number of bariatric surgeries, it is important for healthcare practitioners to maximize symptom management for these patients, including the option of complementary therapies such as Healing Touch. A quasi-experimental study was conducted to determine the feasibility of a Healing Touch intervention for reducing pain, nausea, and anxiety in patients undergoing laparoscopic bariatric surgery. Following surgery, a nurse administered the Healing Touch intervention once daily. Study participants reported levels of pain, nausea, and anxiety immediately before and after the Healing Touch intervention using separate numeric rating scales. Significant decreases in pain, nausea, and anxiety were observed immediately following the intervention on post-operative days one and two, and in pain and anxiety on post-operative day three compared with pre-intervention levels. These findings indicate that the Healing Touch intervention is feasible and acceptable to patients undergoing bariatric surgery, and significantly improved pain, nausea, and anxiety in these patients. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

  12. First impressions and beyond: marketing your practice in touch points--Part II.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Bisera, Cheryl

    2012-01-01

    When calling in a marketing expert to boost a practice's numbers, administrators and providers are usually looking for external marketing strategies--ways to attract new patients to the practice. However, one of the most important, yet often overlooked, elements to successfully marketing a practice is the very important work of retaining current patients and turning them into enthusiastic referrers. When new patients are simply filling the place of previous patients that have moved on, you are not building solid practice growth. You can create an atmosphere of loyal referring patients by providing positive touch points that fulfill the needs of your patients. This article will cover touch points that occur before a patient has chosen your practice. Laying the groundwork for positive touch points will give your marketing efforts a snowball effect, build growth, and deliver the most bang for your marketing bucks.

  13. Therapeutic Touch in the Management of Responsive Behavior in Patients With Dementia.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Kumarappah, Ananthavalli; Senderovich, Helen

    2016-01-01

    Patients with dementia experience various behavioral symptoms in the course of their illnesses, which greatly affect their quality of life. Current treatment modalities are not always effective, and, thus, nonpharmacological approaches are the preferred first-line therapy for managing such symptoms. They generally address the basic needs of the person with dementia and provide humane care, often producing noticeable improvements in symptoms. Thus, such therapies should precede pharmacological interventions. The following literature review of 5 publications from 2010 to 2015 evaluates the use of therapeutic touch (TT) in the management of responsive behavior in patients with dementia. The results of the review suggest that TT may be beneficial in reducing agitation in individuals with dementia; however, further research is needed to assess the use of TT.

  14. A pilot study of the experience of participating in a Therapeutic Touch practice group.

    Science.gov (United States)

    Moore, Theresa; Ting, Brigid; Rossiter-Thornton, Maria

    2008-09-01

    This pilot study explored the experience of participating in a Therapeutic Touch practice group. A qualitative descriptive-exploratory method was used, involving 12 members of practice groups in Ontario and British Columbia, Canada. Analysis of the data using an extraction-synthesis process yielded four themes: (a) learning with others through sharing and hands-on experience is valued; (b) connecting with a network of supportive relationships that sustain self and Therapeutic Touch practice; (c) comfort-discomfort arising with self, others, or ideas; and (d) meaningful changes emerge while experiencing group energy and Therapeutic Touch. The findings expand current knowledge about the positive aspects of participating in practice groups and provide a beginning understanding of member discomfort, which had not been previously reported. This knowledge will be useful to Therapeutic Touch organizations, practice group leaders, and group members. It will also guide health care agencies and practitioners of other healing modalities who may be considering establishing practice groups.

  15. STYLE OVER SUBSTANCE? THE EFFECT OF PERCEPTIONS OF THE ECONOMY AND AFFECT TOWARD THE PRESIDENT ON TRUST IN GOVERNMENT

    OpenAIRE

    Holmes, Adam J

    2005-01-01

    This study examines persons' trust in the federal government using data from the National Election Study for the presidential election years 1980 through 2000. I hypothesize that person's perceptions of the national economy's health and their affect toward the incumbent president are both positively correlated with their trust in the federal government. I also hypothesize that a person's level of affect toward the president is a stronger predictor of their trust in the federal government th...

  16. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    Soo-Chul Lim

    2015-07-01

    Full Text Available Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user’s hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces.

  17. Expansion of Smartwatch Touch Interface from Touchscreen to Around Device Interface Using Infrared Line Image Sensors

    Science.gov (United States)

    Lim, Soo-Chul; Shin, Jungsoon; Kim, Seung-Chan; Park, Joonah

    2015-01-01

    Touchscreen interaction has become a fundamental means of controlling mobile phones and smartwatches. However, the small form factor of a smartwatch limits the available interactive surface area. To overcome this limitation, we propose the expansion of the touch region of the screen to the back of the user’s hand. We developed a touch module for sensing the touched finger position on the back of the hand using infrared (IR) line image sensors, based on the calibrated IR intensity and the maximum intensity region of an IR array. For complete touch-sensing solution, a gyroscope installed in the smartwatch is used to read the wrist gestures. The gyroscope incorporates a dynamic time warping gesture recognition algorithm for eliminating unintended touch inputs during the free motion of the wrist while wearing the smartwatch. The prototype of the developed sensing module was implemented in a commercial smartwatch, and it was confirmed that the sensed positional information of the finger when it was used to touch the back of the hand could be used to control the smartwatch graphical user interface. Our system not only affords a novel experience for smartwatch users, but also provides a basis for developing other useful interfaces. PMID:26184202

  18. Mathematics Teachers' Perceptions of Their Students' Mathematical Competence: Relations to Mathematics Achievement, Affect, and Engagement in Singapore and Australia

    Science.gov (United States)

    Areepattamannil, Shaljan; Kaur, Berinderjeet

    2013-01-01

    This study, drawing on data from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011, examined whether mathematics teachers' perceptions of their students' mathematical competence were related to mathematics achievement, affect toward mathematics, and engagement in mathematics lessons among Grade 8 students in Singapore and…

  19. Multi-Touch Collaborative Gesture Recognition Based User Interfaces as Behavioral Interventions for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorder: A Review

    Directory of Open Access Journals (Sweden)

    AHMED HASSAN

    2016-10-01

    Full Text Available This paper addresses UI (User Interface designing based on multi-touch collaborative gesture recognition meant for ASD (Autism Spectrum Disorder - affected children. The present user interfaces (in the context of behavioral interventions for Autism Spectrum disorder are investigated in detail. Thorough comparison has been made among various groups of these UIs. Advantages and limitations of these interfaces are discussed and future directions for the design of such interfaces are suggested.

  20. CGLXTouch: A multi-user multi-touch approach for ultra-high-resolution collaborative workspaces

    KAUST Repository

    Ponto, Kevin

    2011-06-01

    This paper presents an approach for empowering collaborative workspaces through ultra-high resolution tiled display environments concurrently interfaced with multiple multi-touch devices. Multi-touch table devices are supported along with portable multi-touch tablet and phone devices, which can be added to and removed from the system on the fly. Events from these devices are tagged with a device identifier and are synchronized with the distributed display environment, enabling multi-user support. As many portable devices are not equipped to render content directly, a remotely scene is streamed in. The presented approach scales for large numbers of devices, providing access to a multitude of hands-on techniques for collaborative data analysis. © 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.