title: Elasticity improves handgrip performance and user experience during visuomotor control.
abstract: Passive rehabilitation devices, providing motivation and feedback, potentially offer an automated and low-cost therapy method, and can be used as simple human-machine interfaces. Here, we ask whether there is any advantage for a hand-training device to be elastic, as opposed to rigid, in terms of performance and preference. To address this question, we have developed a highly sensitive and portable digital handgrip, promoting independent and repetitive rehabilitation of grasp function based around a novel elastic force and position sensing structure. A usability study was performed on 66 healthy subjects to assess the effect of elastic versus rigid handgrip control during various visuomotor tracking tasks. The results indicate that, for tasks relying either on feedforward or on feedback control, novice users perform significantly better with the elastic handgrip, compared with the rigid equivalent (11% relative improvement, 9-14% mean range;p< 0.01). Furthermore, there was a threefold increase in the number of subjects who preferred elastic compared with rigid handgrip interaction. Our results suggest that device compliance is an important design consideration for grip training devices.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering , Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine , London , UK.
authors.forename: Michael
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-9599-448X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mace
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK; Division of Brain Sciences, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Rinne
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering , Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine , London , UK.
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Liardon
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences , Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine , London , UK.
authors.forename: Catherine
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Uhomoibhi
authors.affiliation: Division of Brain Sciences , Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine , London , UK.
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Bentley
authors.affiliation: Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK; Robotics Research Centre, School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore.
authors.forename: Etienne
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Burdet
keywords: elastic; grip force; handgrip interface; isometric; rehabilitation