Identifying haptic exploratory procedures by analyzing hand dynamics and contact force.

Haptic exploratory procedures (EPs) are prototypical hand movements that are linked to the acquisition of specific object properties. In studies of haptic perception, hand movements are often classified into these EPs. Here, we aim to investigate several EPs in a quantitative manner to understand how hand dynamics and contact forces differ between them. These dissimilarities are then used to construct an EP identification model capable of discriminating between EPs based on the index finger position and contact force. The extent to which the instructed EPs were distinct, repeatable, and similar across subjects was confirmed by showing that more than 95 percent of the analyzed trials were classified correctly. Finally, the method is employed to investigate haptic exploratory behavior during similarity judgments based on several object properties. It seems that discrimination based on material properties (hardness, roughness, and temperature) yields more consistent classification results compared to discrimination based on the acquisition of shape information.