Vibration Perception Thresholds on the five fingers of the Human Right Hand among an adult population

Abstract

The goal of the present study was to assess vibration perception thresholds (VPT) for frequencies of 65, 300, and 500 Hz, at the finger pads of the five fingers of the human right hand, while also assessing potential differences between the fingers, and potential effects of the use of two similar psychophysical methods to measure VPT. A novel instrument, the Hand Vibration Threshold Mapper, was used in this study. 13 participants took part on this experiment. Significant differences were found between VPT scores obtained using the two methods. No significant differences were found between VPT scores obtained on the five fingers, when grouped by method. Significant differences were found between VPT scores obtained on the 3 frequencies, grouped by method. Design guideline recommendations aimed at haptic feedback developers were elaborated based on these results.