Abstract
A palpation is convenient and it is a useful method to detect a cancer and to evaluate softness of skin. However, the palpation is skillful method, and the mental/physical conditions of the experts affect the result of the palpation easily. The result of palpation is subjective and it is hard to share the result with the other people. Therefore, the development of the sensor that can measure the softness of the body is demanded. In this paper, a relationship between physical properties of measured objects and the softness that human feel are investigated for a development of a tactile sensor system. At first, the relationship between tactile softness and stiffness of the measured objects is investigated. As a result, tactile softness decreases with the increase of stiffness of the objects. Next, the relationship between tactile softness and size of contact area of human finger are investigated. These results lead to the conclusion that there is a possibility that tactile softness of the objects are not only related to the contact force or displacement of a finger and the objects but also to the contact area of the finger and the measured objects.
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