SuperTouch · Superimposing Model-Based Multisensory Touch Sensations on Everyday Surfaces

Imagine running your fingers over a hard, rough, cool brick wall yet feeling a soft, smooth, warm surface like fur. Recent advancements in wearable haptic technologies are opening new possibilities for augmenting natural fingertip sensations with artificial tactile feedback. However, systematically overlaying surfaces—each evoking distinct sensations like roughness, softness, or warmth through stimulating the skin with a combination of vibration, pressure, and temperature signals—with artificial sensations remains a significant challenge. This complexity stems from our limited understanding of synthesizing multisensory tactile experiences with specific perceptual attributes and superimposing these artificial sensations with natural ones perceived at the fingertip during active exploration.In SuperTouch, I aim to understand how to replace the tactile feel of any surface experienced through bare fingertips with new, desired sensations across the full spectrum of perceptual dimensions. I will achieve this goal through a model-based approach by applying precisely modeled multisensory stimuli—vibration, temperature, and pressure—to the finger phalanx. I will begin by identifying perceptually relevant tactile features from the finger-surface interaction data in my lab's recent database. These features will be the foundation for synthesizing artificial stimuli, rendered using the multisensory haptic surface and ring newly developed in my lab. By conducting psychophysical experiments and employing interpretable machine learning techniques, I will mathematically model a) the relationship between tactile features and the resulting sensory experiences and b) the integration of stimuli across multiple contact points, allowing for the precise generation of sensations.SuperTouch will pioneer a new frontier in haptics by introducing the first universal model-based superimposition approach for multisensory cutaneous sensations, advancing the science of touch.