Haptic Guidance Improves the Visuo-Manual Tracking of Trajectories

Abstract

BackgroundLearning to perform new movements is usually achieved by following visual demonstrations. Haptic guidance by a force feedback device is a recent and original technology which provides additional proprioceptive cues during visuo-motor learning tasks. The effects of two types of haptic guidances-control in position (HGP) or in force (HGF)–on visuo-manual tracking (“following”) of trajectories are still under debate.Methodology/Principals FindingsThree training techniques of haptic guidance (HGP, HGF or control condition, NHG, without haptic guidance) were evaluated in two experiments. Movements produced by adults were assessed in terms of shapes (dynamic time warping) and kinematics criteria (number of velocity peaks and mean velocity) before and after the training sessions. Trajectories consisted of two Arabic and two Japanese-inspired letters in Experiment 1 and ellipses in Experiment 2. We observed that the use of HGF globally improves the fluency of the visuo-manual tracking of trajectories while no significant improvement was found for HGP or NHG.Conclusion/SignificanceThese results show that the addition of haptic information, probably encoded in force coordinates, play a crucial role on the visuo-manual tracking of new trajectories.

Retraining of interjoint arm coordination after stroke using robot-assisted time-independent functional training

“…Nevertheless, for stroke rehabilitation, we believe further study into assistance modes such as TIFT is needed, given the recent negative findings in robots that have used the TD training mode [42][43] and the evidence that passive movement training does not improve motor control [82][83]. For example, Bluteau et al found that in a drawing task, haptic guidance with a position-based controller similar to our TD training mode was inferior to a force-based controller for motor learning [84].…”

The Assesment of Spatial Features and Kinematics of Characters: an Analysis of Subjective and Objective Measures

“…Further research in multisensory-training protocols, as opposed to unisensory protocols, produce greater and more efficient learning. These results indicate that multisensory training promotes more effective learning of the information than unisensory training (Ernst & Bülthoff, 2004;Bluteau et al, 2008;Fredembach et al, 2009). The benefit of multisensory exposure is persistent even when information is gathered from unisensory condition (Shams & Seitz, 2008).…”

“…The digitalization of their traces was performed using a haptic device (PHANToM Omni® from SensAble). The desired trajectory was displayed on a horizontal screen and the participant's pen trajectory was recorded from the haptic device, placed over the screen (Bluteau et al, 2008). Ergonomics efforts have been made to achieve this virtual co-located configuration, close to the real writing task, allowing standardize protocol of trajectories presentation and recording (Bluteau et al, 2008).…”

“…The assessment of spatial features and kinematics of characters: an analysis of subjective and objective measures 127 Di Brina, 2008;Bluteau et al, 2008). This algorithm has a real application in character recognition as shown by this citation from Di Brina and colleagues (2008): "By objectively analyzing the spatial-temporal patterns, DTW captures the essential character of writing, i.e., the overall shape of its graphic output".…”

Combining Brain-Computer Interfaces and Haptics: Detecting Mental Workload to Adapt Haptic Assistance

“…Bluteau et al [12] have compared different types of guidance and showed that the addition of haptic information plays an important role on the visuo-manual tracking of new trajectories, especially when forces are used for the guidance. Recent work has focused on the adaptation of haptic guidance to maximize learning effect [13].…”