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Bridging the gap between artificial vision and touch

Object manipulation using an innovative glove allows large databases of detailed pressure maps to be obtained. Such data could lead to advances in robotic sensing and in our understanding of the role of touch in manipulation.
  1. Giulia Pasquale

    1. Giulia Pasquale is at the Italian Institute of Technology, 16163 Genoa, Italy, and the Laboratory for Computational and Statistical Learning, University of Genoa, Genoa.

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The study and replication of human sensory abilities, such as visual, auditory and tactile (touch-based) perception, depend on the availability of suitable data. Generally, the larger and richer the data set, the more closely models can mimic these functions. Advances in artificial visual and speech systems rely on powerful models, known as deep-learning models, and have been fuelled by the ubiquity of databases of digital images and spoken audio (see, for example, go.nature.com/2w7nc0q). By contrast, progress in the development of tactile sensors — devices that convert a stimulus of physical contact into a measurable signal — has been limited, mainly because of the difficulty of integrating electronics into flexible materials1. In a paper in Nature, Sundaram et al.2 report their use of a low-cost tactile glove that addresses this issue.

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Nature 569, 638-639 (2019)

doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-01593-w

References

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