Haptic sensitivity in needle insertion: the effects of training and visual aid

Emilio Loren Roth Monzon^*, Amine Chellali^†, Cedric Dumas^ך and Caroline G.L. Cao^‡

^(*) Institut de Recherche en Communications et Cybernétique de Nantes, France
^(†) Ecole des Mines de Nantes, France
^(ך) Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Australia
^(‡) Tufts University, USA
E-mail: emilic@gmail.com, Amine.Chellali@mines-nantes.fr, Cedric.Dumas@csiro.au, Caroline.Cao@tufts.edu

Abstract

This paper describes an experiment conducted to measure haptic sensitivity and the effects of haptic training with and without visual aid. The protocol for haptic training consisted of a needle insertion task using dual-layer silicon samples. A visual aid was provided as a multimodal cue for the haptic perception task. Results showed that for a group of novices (subjects with no previous experience in needle insertion), training with a visual aid resulted in a longer time to task completion, and a greater applied force, during post-training tests. This suggests that haptic perception is easily overshadowed, and may be completely replaced, by visual feedback. Therefore, haptic skills must be trained differently from visuomotor skills.