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. 2018 Jun 29;18(7):2088.
doi: 10.3390/s18072088.

Response Time to a Vibrotactile Stimulus Presented on the Foot at Rest and During Walking on Different Surfaces

Landry Delphin Chapwouo Tchakouté  1 , Louis Tremblay  2 , Bob-Antoine J Menelas  3
Affiliations

Response Time to a Vibrotactile Stimulus Presented on the Foot at Rest and During Walking on Different Surfaces

Landry Delphin Chapwouo Tchakouté et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

This study investigates the simple reaction time (SRT) and response time (RT) to a vibrotactile stimulus presented on two body locations at the lower extremity of the foot on different types of surface during walking. We determined RTs while walking on Concrete, Foam, Sand, and gravel surface. Also, for RT, we evaluated two vibrotactile stimulus (VS) locations on the lower extremity: the ankle (AL) and under the foot plantar (FP). A total of 21 young adult participants (n = 21), aged mean 24 ± 2.9 years, took part in a two-session experiment with two main conditions (at rest and while walking on four types of surface). The control session included 2016 repeated measures, with one-way and two-way ANOVA analyses. The findings have consistently revealed slowness of RT to VS, in particular on sand and gravel surface. In addition, we found that body location has a significant effect on RT in certain surfaces. These results showed that RTs increased with environment changes during the performance of dual tasks.

Keywords: enactive shoe; foot; reaction time; response time; type of surface; vibrotactile stimuli; wearable device.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Characterisation test of the device displayed by an oscilloscope.
Figure 2
Figure 2
The device is worn on the left foot, and a strap holding the haptuator is located on the two lower extremities where the fast mechanoreceptors (FA-I and FA-II) are more represented in order to render VS. (a) In the first half of the experiment, the haptuator is located at the lateral ankle joint; (b) in the second half, haptuator is located under the arch of the second toe.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Enactive wearable and removable insole: (a) ear protection; (b) Power supply of 5 v; Haptic system ((c) Mark II haptuator mounted on strap; (e) Bluetooth amplifier with a battery); Computing system ((d) Raspberry Pi + EnviroPhat; (f) Force sensitive resistor).
Figure 4
Figure 4
A participant performing the test wearing the enactive device and ear protection. The task consists of walking, focusing on the black spot on the opposite wall, and performing the RT test on the foam surface. Four types of surface named: concrete (a); foam (b); sand (c); and gravel (d).
Figure 5
Figure 5
Experiment synopsis. 1. Sending the parameters of the experiment and information regarding the user in the processing system; 2. Saving settings and information in information.txt; 3. The processing system waits for the user to perform the first step; 3. The processing system detects the step and transmits FSR actuated to the haptic system, which sends the first VS (t1) and commences a delay of 5 s; 4. The user presses the screen and the time (t2) is recorded in the file reponse.txt; 5. The processing system retrieves the response, calculates the SRT and records it in dataphat.txt; 6. The processing system waits for the next step that will actuate the FSR.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Comparison of reaction times on young participants at two location of stimulus (Foot plantar and Ankle). * are results from turkey comparison for the two-way ANOVA.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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