INCLUSION PROBING: SIGNAL DETECTION AND HAPTIC PLAYBACK OF 2D FEM AND EXPERIMENTAL DATA

The task of probing a medium for an inclusion is cast as a signal detection problem. A sufficient statistic is developed for determining the existence and location of an inclusion. The anal- ysis shows the human limitations of palpation when using a probe and the limitations imposed by a haptic display either when emu- lating such an environment or when relaying related information in a teleoperated system. Force calculations using FEM mod- els were compared to data measured from constructed gels. Psy- chophysics experiments demonstrated promising results for the playback of the FEM data.