Exploring Air Properties for fMRI-Compatible Interaction Devices

Abstract

The strong magnetic field of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and the supine position of participants in fMRI scanners severely limit how participants can interact during fMRI experiments. This paper explores the use of air properties to design interaction-device systems that allow various interaction styles inside a fMRI scanner. Airflow and air pressure are explored to design and develop the interaction system. A series of air-based devices are introduced and discussed to demonstrate the feasibility of an air-based approach. This includes soft tactile and conventional controls (e.g., button, slider, joystick, pedal). To achieve fMRI-compatibility, all parts used inside the scanner are built from non-ferromagnetic, off-the-shelf plastic, and/or 3D printed materials. The fMRI compatibility was evaluated on a 3.0 Tesla fMRI scanner. We conclude with example applications and thoughts on future avenues of research.

A Review of 3D‐Printable Soft Pneumatic Actuators and Sensors: Research Challenges and Opportunities

“…Also, SLA 3D printing was used to fabricate pneumatic touch buttons using an elastic commercial resin. [ 121 ]…”

“…[ 120 ] Touch (i.e., force) sensors directly used to achieve real‐time force control in soft robotic fingers [12b] safely interact with soft robotic skins for applications involving human–robot interaction (Figure 9C), [ 118 ] develop haptic feedback devices based on soft deformable touch buttons (Figure 9A), [23b] control various robotic mechanisms (Figure 9D), [ 119 ] and control gaming interfaces (Figure 9E). [23b,121] Linear soft sensors can be used in hybrid game controllers made of soft and rigid materials [23b] . Finally, torsional soft sensors can be used to develop hybrid throttle controllers and interactive robotic skins [23b,120] …”

“…These examples prove that soft 3D‐printable soft pneumatic sensing chambers can be used in a wide range of soft robotic applications for various purposes where they can be tailored using geometric modeling and 3D printing to target specific requirements. In addition, they can be extended to be used reliably for closed‐loop feedback control in different robotic systems including haptic feedback systems [ 121 ] and soft robotic fingers and grippers [12b,123] …”

“…FEM can be used to design and optimize soft pneumatic sensing chambers to generate a linear response between their input and the corresponding output [23b] . Also, such chambers can be used as touch, [ 118,119,121 ] single and bidirectional bending, [ 122 ] linear and torsional sensors, [23b] and in some cases, such modalities can be achieved using the same sensing structure [ 120 ] based on their topology and their behavior upon deforming.…”