Grace Dyer
MDES 2020 Industrial Design
Out of touch
Currently, adults over the age of 18 lose 1% of their sense of touch every year (Wickremaratchi, M M, and J G Llewelyn). Humans cannot supplement the sense of touch artificially in the way that is possible to augment the lack of the sense of sight or the sense of hearing, with eyeglasses and hearing aids. There is a lack of an existing solution for this probable concern as we vision towards the future.
What if touch gyms were established to reawaken the tactual sense through intentional equipment and space that highlights particular modalities of tactile touch?
Mechanics of touch
All over the body, throughout the epidermis, are sensory mechanoreceptors. These are neurons that respond to pressure, temperature, or distortion. In combination, these sensors give humans information about shapes, textures, objects, temperature, pain, and proprioceptive information about where the body is located in space.
Merkel’s Discs
Merkel's Discs respond to indentation of the skin or light pressure. They are small, highly sensitive receptive fields.
Meissner’s Corpuscles
Meissner's Corpuscles respond to faint touch. They occur in the glabrous skin of the eyelids, palms, and the fingertips.
Ruffini’s Endings
Ruffini's Endings are found in the superficial dermis of both hairy and hairless skin. They respond to pressure that results in stretching of the skin.
The Touch Gym stations have been developed based on neuroscientific research regarding the mechanoreceptors of the hands and fingers. Based on this research, these machines are intended to improve one’s ability to experience the sensations associated with that mechanoreceptor.
The Touch Gym consists of three training stations: the Meissner Oscillator, the Merkel Roller, and the Ruffini Detector, below.
The Touch Gym
The Touch Gym is set in the context of a future where the tactile sense has suffered distinct atrophy due to an explosion of digitally-, virtually-, and screen-based technology and experiences. Those seeking to rebuild their sense of touch visit newly-established Touch Gyms where they train their touch sensibilities. Through machines and activities designed to reawaken particular elements of touch, humans can re-attune themselves to the nuances of tactility.
The Merkel Roller
The Merkel Roller focuses on the sensation of light pressure. Named after the Merkel’s Disc, the sensory receptor that senses indentation in the skin, the Merkel Roller exercises the sense of light pressure through an array of textured stimuli. Stimuli are selected from the chute, considered, and then placed into the top tray. After use, the stimuli can be rolled through the middle of the machine, ready for the next gym-goer.
The Meissner Oscillator
The Meissner Oscillator targets the Meissner’s Corpuscles, the receptors responsible for faint touch. The participant using the Meissner Oscillator focuses on discriminating the number of faint touches experienced at one time on the palm and fingers. The user places their hand above the stimuli field, aligned with the top wire frame. "Grass-like" stimuli are mechanized to rise to a fixed height so that the faint touch receptors can be activated once again.
The Ruffini Detector
Ruffini’s Endings are the sensory receptors that enable one to sense distortion or stretching of the skin. The stimuli in the Ruffini Detector are mechanically randomized to provide the divergent sensation of a stretch and the convergent sensation of a squeeze. Gym-goers are tasked with differentiating which sensation they are experiencing, one fingertip at a time.
Process:
“There is a haptic rule of thumb: when we touch something or someone, we are, inevitably, touched in return. When we look we are not necessarily being looked at, but when we touch, by the nature of pressing our hand or any part of our body on a subject or object, we cannot escape the contact.”
Citations
Wickremaratchi, M M, and J G Llewelyn. “Effects of Ageing on Touch.” Postgraduate Medical Journal 82, no. 967 (May 2006): 301–4. https://doi.org/10.1136/pgmj.2005.039651.
Bruno, Giuliana. 2016. Surface: matters of aesthetics, materiality, and media. Chicago, Ill: University of Chicago Press.
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