A novel tactile sensation measurement system for qualifying touch perception

The feel of films, wrapping paper, cardboards, and other packaging materials are important to the commercial success of foods. It is known from people's self-report studies that different surfaces provoke different subjective responses. There are several mechanical parameters, including friction, roughness, compliance, and thermal properties, which are important to the sensory feel. This paper describes the design, construction, and use of a multisensory measurement system for tactile sensation that can be used to evaluate the feel of different packaging materials. The experiments were conducted by sliding or pressing an artificial fingertip with embedded sensors against the surfaces of different samples which were fixed on a force table. The roughness, friction coefficients, compliance, and rate of change in the temperature were obtained. Forty volunteers were asked to touch and rate the samples by filling in questionnaires about how they felt. Strong correlations were found between people's feelings and the physical measurements.