Evaluation Method of Fabrics by Visual and Tactile Texture Information using MEMS Combo Sensor

In this paper, we report texture measurement of the fabrics by a multimodal MEMS sensor. This sensor has sensitivity to both multi-axial force vector and light. Therefore, we can evaluate tactile texture by force measurement and visual texture by light measurement. This sensor has a possibility for texture measurement with both visual and tactile information in substitution for the human sensory test. In this work, various fabrics were chosen as the target object and evaluated by sensory test method using 10 test subjects. The dependences of the sensor output on reflection of probe light, reactive force, and frictional force by active approaching and touching of the sensor to the object surface were also evaluated. As a result, it is demonstrated that there is a good correlation between the results of the human sensory test and features of visual and tactile sensor output.