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The Role of Posture, Magnification, and Grip Force on Microscopic Accuracy

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Abstract

While tremor has been studied extensively, the investigations thus far do not give detailed information on how the accuracy necessary for micromanipulations is affected while performing tasks in microsurgery and the life sciences. This paper systematically studies the effects of visual feedback, posture and grip force on the trial error and tremor intensity of subjects holding a forceps-like object to perform a pointing task. Results indicate that: (i) Arm support improves accuracy in tasks requiring fine manipulation and reduces tremor intensity in the 2–8 Hz region, but hand support does not provide the same effect; hence freedom of wrist movement can be retained without a significant increase in trial error. (ii) Magnification of up to ×10 is critical to carry out accurate micromanipulations, but beyond that level, magnification is not the most important factor. (iii) While an appropriate grip force must be learned in order to grasp micro-objects, such as a needle, without damaging them, the level of grip force applied does not affect the endpoint accuracy.

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Acknowledgments

We thank Fernando Bello for providing us with a haptic interface for some of the experiments and Alex Zivanovic for technical support. Eileen L. M. Su is funded by a scholarship from Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College London, South Kensington Campus, SW7 2AZ, London, UK

    Basil Safwat, Eileen L. M. Su, Roger Gassert & Etienne Burdet

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, National University of Singapore, 119260, Singapore, Singapore

    Chee Leong Teo

Authors
  1. Basil Safwat
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  2. Eileen L. M. Su
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  3. Roger Gassert
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  4. Chee Leong Teo
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  5. Etienne Burdet
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Etienne Burdet.

Additional information

The experiments were carried out at National University of Singapore and at Imperial College London.

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Safwat, B., Su, E.L.M., Gassert, R. et al. The Role of Posture, Magnification, and Grip Force on Microscopic Accuracy. Ann Biomed Eng 37, 997–1006 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-009-9664-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10439-009-9664-7

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