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4d ago

Study Finds Humans Can Detect Buried Objects Before Contact

Experiments presented at IEEE ICDL report fingertips sensing tiny sand displacements near physical limits.

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Chen et al. carried out two studies: the first, a human study assessing fingertip sensitivity to tactile cues from buried objects; the second, a robotic experiment using a tactile-equipped robotic arm and a Long Short-Term Memory model to detect object presence. Image credit: Gemini AI.

Overview

  • Human volunteers detected hidden cubes in sand with about 70.7% precision within the modeled detectable range near 6.9 cm, with a median distance of 2.7 cm.
  • A tactile robot trained with an LSTM sensed objects from slightly greater distances on average (~7.1 cm; 6 cm median) but achieved roughly 40% precision and more false positives.
  • Physical modeling points to minute granular displacements—mechanical reflections—as the signal, approaching theoretical detection thresholds and suggesting a range up to about 7 cm.
  • Inspired by shorebirds that probe sand for prey, the study provides the first controlled laboratory evidence of a comparable remote-touch capability in humans.
  • Researchers propose applications for assistive tools and tactile robots in archaeology and exploration where vision is limited, and the study is published in IEEE Xplore.