Leveraging Neuroscience to Improve Haptic Rendering

Kollannur, Sandeep Zechariah George

Leveraging Neuroscience to Improve Haptic Rendering

dc.contributor.advisor	Chan, Sonny
dc.contributor.advisor	Oehlberg, Lora
dc.contributor.author	Kollannur, Sandeep Zechariah George
dc.contributor.committeemember	Peters, Ryan
dc.date	2019-11-22
dc.date.accessioned	2019-07-26T20:02:18Z
dc.date.available	2019-07-26T20:02:18Z
dc.date.issued	2019-07-26
dc.description.abstract	In the evolving world of virtual reality (VR), haptics plays an important role. Haptics enables individuals to feel and experience the virtual world and to immerse fully in the virtual environment. Haptics has a long history in which researchers have created various types of devices. Virtual reality brings in the need for highly portable and wearable devices which are limited in weight and grounding. Within the restrictive weight and size limitations of mobile and wearable devices limits the haptic rendering capabilities. This thesis attempts to overcome the limitations by developing a better understanding of the biology of touch via sensorimotor neuroscience to improve touch perception in virtual textures. In this research, we explore the receptor cells that encode touch information from mechanical stimuli and send them to the brain. Sensorimotor neuroscience explores the functional role of the different type of receptor cells in the human body. We use this biological perspective to create a classification of wearable haptic devices for the fingertip and the hand. The second part of the research explores the neuroscience concept of stochastic resonance that is proved to improve light touch sensation. We create a system comprising of hardware and software to evaluate the impact of stochastic resonance in a virtual texture discrimination task. I conclude this thesis by exploring the future directions of the research presented in this thesis and summarizing the two main contributions of this thesis: first is to develop a neuroscience-based classification of wearable haptic devices for the fingertip and the hand and second is to build a platform to evaluate the effect of mechanical SR in discriminating virtual textures.	en_US
dc.identifier.citation	Kollannur, S. Z. G. (2019). Leveraging Neuroscience to Improve Haptic Rendering (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.	en_US
dc.identifier.doi	http://dx.doi.org/10.11575/PRISM/36775
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1880/110675
dc.language.iso	eng	en_US
dc.publisher.faculty	Science	en_US
dc.publisher.institution	University of Calgary	en
dc.rights	University of Calgary graduate students retain copyright ownership and moral rights for their thesis. You may use this material in any way that is permitted by the Copyright Act or through licensing that has been assigned to the document. For uses that are not allowable under copyright legislation or licensing, you are required to seek permission.	en_US
dc.subject	Haptics	en_US
dc.subject	Neuroscience	en_US
dc.subject	HCI	en_US
dc.subject.classification	Computer Science	en_US
dc.title	Leveraging Neuroscience to Improve Haptic Rendering	en_US
dc.type	master thesis	en_US
thesis.degree.discipline	Computer Science	en_US
thesis.degree.grantor	University of Calgary	en_US
thesis.degree.name	Master of Science (MSc)	en_US
ucalgary.item.requestcopy	true	en_US