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Sensors Designed For Prosthetic Hands Could Lead To New Textile Standards (smithsonianmag.com)
schwit1 writes: "When you touch something, you are doing more than sensing the surface of that object. You're also changing it, however subtly. Your finger emits heat, and no matter how gentle you are, you exert an almost imperceptible amount of pressure. In other words, you aren't just feeling the material, you're feeling its reaction to your touch."
With this in mind, SynTouch has built its BioTac sensor to emulate this reaction by producing heat and pressure on its own, just like a real finger would. But in order to teach the sensor how to process this information, its engineers have developed the "SynTouch Standard" — a comprehensive collection of 500 different materials classified based on 15 different factors, which includes friction and smoothness, Sarah Fecht writes for Popular Science.
By categorizing these materials to teach the robots differences in texture, SynTouch has almost accidentally created a texture standard for manufacturers. Companies could use these standards to more easily judge fabrics that are used for everything from the newest runway styles to car seat covers.
With this in mind, SynTouch has built its BioTac sensor to emulate this reaction by producing heat and pressure on its own, just like a real finger would. But in order to teach the sensor how to process this information, its engineers have developed the "SynTouch Standard" — a comprehensive collection of 500 different materials classified based on 15 different factors, which includes friction and smoothness, Sarah Fecht writes for Popular Science.
By categorizing these materials to teach the robots differences in texture, SynTouch has almost accidentally created a texture standard for manufacturers. Companies could use these standards to more easily judge fabrics that are used for everything from the newest runway styles to car seat covers.
I think saying that this could change industry standards is putting the cart before the horse. What the author is suggesting is that an entire industry should change its standards so that another companies robot can "feel" its fabric correctly? That would be like Apple or Microsoft or Samsung designing phones so that they will fit a specific manufacturers cases. Probably not going to happen.
Why is it in their interest?
Funky. Cold. Medina.
By categorizing these materials to teach the robots differences in texture, SynTouch has almost accidentally created a texture standard for manufacturers. Companies could use these standards to more easily judge fabrics that are used for everything from the newest runway styles to car seat covers.
It seems likely this technology will fall short of a human's refined ability to feel, much the same as present attempts to discern subtle color variations.
It is, however, a neat step forward for robotics.
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I heard they had to switch to female testers, because with the male testers the hand somehow got itself stuck to their genitalia.
This sounds similar to the research project I was involved in 9 years ago:
http://haptex.miralab.unige.ch/
Probably going to be copyrighted, patented, and/or locked down so tight nobody will be able to wear cotton anymore. Kinda like pantone.
There are some very cool ideas here, particularly the use of hydraulic coupling to measure pressure and vibration, as well as the measurement of thermal properties. It's a very nice sensor for robot fingers.
However, it seems to targeted solely toward bulk perception, since the fingertip looks smooth and uniform. This is quite different from human fingertips, where the fingerprint ridges provide a significant component of tactile perception, particularly in motion. It's also not obvious why the thermal measurements should correspond to human perception, which depend at least as much on the thermal (and mechanical) properties of what's underneath the material as the material itself. For example, the sensation of touching a clothed live person's arm is very different from touching a clothed mannequin, even if the clothing materials are identical. But even so, it's a big improvement on florid adjectives.
Unfortunately, the website seems completely devoid of information about ordering their products or services, or on examples of their measurement results, which looks like a bad sign. It would be a pity if they were aiming to introduce an expensive proprietary standard. Many measurement standards in the physical world (e.g., ASTM) are hugely and disproportionately expensive (not to mention comparatively ancient in technical sophistication--Shore Durometer, anyone?). These costs form a significant barrier for small businesses attempting to introduce a novel product or material. A cynic might say that's precisely why large established enterprises provide financial support for those standards-setting organizations.
nope, just Wolowitz.
At special request, texture class "American Pie" has recently been added to the standard.
http://www.syntouchllc.com/Services/Tactile-Characterization/
Includes a video. I found it interesting