Tactile perception plays an important role in activities of daily living, and it can be impaired in individuals with certain medical conditions. The most common tools used to assess tactile sensation, the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments and the 128 Hz tuning fork, have poor repeatability and resolution. Long term, we aim to provide a repeatable, high-resolution testing platform that can be used to assess vibrotactile perception through smartphones without the need for an experimenter to be present to conduct the test. We present a smartphone-based vibration perception measurement platform and compare its performance to measurements from standard monofilament and tuning fork tests. We conducted a user study with 36 healthy adults in which we tested each tool on the hand, wrist, and foot, to assess how well our smartphone-based vibration perception thresholds (VPTs) detect known trends obtained from standard tests. The smartphone platform detected statistically significant changes in VPT between the index finger and foot and also between the feet of younger adults and older adults. Our smartphone-based VPT had a moderate correlation to tuning fork-based VPT. Our overarching objective is to develop an accessible smartphone-based platform that can eventually be used to measure disease progression and regression.

中文翻译：

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智能手机和标准工具的比较分析，用于跨多个身体部位的触摸感知评估


触觉在日常生活活动中发挥着重要作用，患有某些疾病的人可能会受到损害。用于评估触觉的最常用工具是 Semmes-Weinstein 单丝和 128 Hz 音叉，但重复性和分辨率较差。从长远来看，我们的目标是提供一个可重复的高分辨率测试平台，可用于通过智能手机评估振动触觉感知，而无需实验人员在场进行测试。我们提出了一个基于智能手机的振动感知测量平台，并将其性能与标准单丝和音叉测试的测量结果进行比较。我们对 36 名健康成年人进行了一项用户研究，在手、手腕和脚上测试了每种工具，以评估我们基于智能手机的振动感知阈值 (VPT) 检测标准测试中获得的已知趋势的效果。智能手机平台检测到食指和脚之间以及年轻人和老年人脚之间的 VPT 变化具有统计学意义。我们基于智能手机的 VPT 与基于音叉的 VPT 具有中等相关性。我们的首要目标是开发一个基于智能手机的可访问平台，最终可用于测量疾病进展和消退。