A closed-loop neurorobotic system for investigating braille-reading finger kinematics

Authors:
Jérémie Pinoteau;Luca Leonardo Bologna;Jesús Alberto Garrido;Angelo Arleo
Affiliations:
Adaptive NeuroComputation Group, Unit of Neurobiology of Adaptive Processes, UMR 7102, CNRS---University Pierre and Marie Curie P6, Paris, France;Adaptive NeuroComputation Group, Unit of Neurobiology of Adaptive Processes, UMR 7102, CNRS---University Pierre and Marie Curie P6, Paris, France;Department of Cellular-Molecular Physiological and Pharmacological Sciences, University of Pavia, Pavia, Italy;Adaptive NeuroComputation Group, Unit of Neurobiology of Adaptive Processes, UMR 7102, CNRS---University Pierre and Marie Curie P6, Paris, France
Venue:
EuroHaptics'12 Proceedings of the 2012 international conference on Haptics: perception, devices, mobility, and communication - Volume Part I
Year:
2012

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Abstract

We present a closed-loop neurorobotic system to investigate haptic discrimination of Braille characters in a reading task. We first encode tactile stimuli into spiking activity of peripheral primary afferents, mimicking human mechanoreceptors. We then simulate a network of second-order neurones receiving the primary signals prior to their transmission to a probabilistic classifier. The latter estimates the likelihood distribution of all characters and uses it to both determine which letter is being read and modulate the reading velocity. We show that an early discrimination of the entire Braille alphabet is possible at both first and second stages of the somatosensory ascending pathway. Furthermore, 89% of the characters are correctly recognised in a constant-velocity reading task, while a closed-loop modulation of the speed allows for faster scanning and movement kinematics similar to the ones observed in humans ---though with a lower classification rate.