SensoPatch: A Reconfigurable Haptic Feedback with High-Density Tactile Sensing Glove

Haptic feedback is integral to the improved experience of prosthetic users and the reduction in prosthesis rejection. Unfortunately, existing haptic feedback systems often face challenges that impede their transition to clinical use including lack of intuitive control, reproducibility, and personalized customization. Prior studies have explored various methods to encode tactile information and deliver vibration feedback. However, a comprehensive study comparing performance across different stimulation locations and feedback modalities for wearable devices is absent and there is no robust test platform. This paper proposes an open-source reconfigurable haptic feedback system which features 25 sensors and wireless communication to allow customized number of vibration motors, adjustable motor placement, and programmable encoding of tactile data to change feedback modalities. To demonstrate the potential studies that can be investigated using the proposed system, we conducted two preliminary experiments: 1) to assess the vibration discrimination accuracy on three body parts (upper arm, shoulder, and lower back) 2) to evaluate the effect of six methods of mapping tactile data to varying number of motors on object manipulation. This proposed tool utilizes low-cost off-the-shelf components, enabling large-scale comparative studies of feedback modalities and stimulation sites to optimize vibrotactile feedback and facilitate its deployment in upper limb prostheses.