A fingertip guiding manipulator for mental image creation of multi-stroke drawings

Authors developed an improved fingertip guiding manipulator that helps visually handicapped persons create mental images of relief sculptures. The manipulator has three functions: (1) an indicating function of knob-moving-direction by a stepping-motor attached at the arm end, (2) a fingertip traction function by a quadrilateral parallel link manipulator, and (3) a fingertip up-down motion function by a linear motion actuator. The former two functions are utilized to represent planer 2D figures, and the last one is to represent the relief sculpture representation together with the former two. Some preliminary experiments were carried out, and the human perceptual thresholds with the up-down motion and the fingertip rotation, and the human kinesthetic following performance were clarified. These thresholds shall be used as the back data for designing mechanical specifications of the proposed fingertip guiding manipulator.