The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking
Wearable motion capture gloves enable the precise analysis of hand and finger movements for a variety of uses, including robotic surgery, rehabilitation, and most commonly, virtual augmentation. However, many motion capture gloves restrict natural hand movement with a closed-palm design, including f...
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MDPI AG
2025-01-01
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| author | Olivia Hosie Mats Isaksson John McCormick Oren Tirosh Chrys Hensman |
| author_facet | Olivia Hosie Mats Isaksson John McCormick Oren Tirosh Chrys Hensman |
| author_sort | Olivia Hosie |
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| description | Wearable motion capture gloves enable the precise analysis of hand and finger movements for a variety of uses, including robotic surgery, rehabilitation, and most commonly, virtual augmentation. However, many motion capture gloves restrict natural hand movement with a closed-palm design, including fabric over the palm and fingers. In order to alleviate slippage, improve comfort, reduce sizing issues, and eliminate movement restrictions, this paper presents a new low-cost data glove with an innovative open-palm and finger-free design. The new design improves usability and overall functionality by addressing the limitations of traditional closed-palm designs. It is especially beneficial in capturing movements in fields such as physical therapy and robotic surgery. The new glove incorporates resistive flex sensors (RFSs) at each finger and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) at the wrist joint to measure wrist flexion, extension, ulnar and radial deviation, and rotation. Initially the sensors were tested individually for drift, synchronisation delays, and linearity. The results show a drift of 6.60°/h in the IMU and no drift in the RFSs. There was a 0.06 s delay in the data captured by the IMU compared to the RFSs. The glove’s performance was tested with a collaborate robot testing setup. In static conditions, it was found that the IMU had a worst case error across three trials of 7.01° and a mean absolute error (MAE) averaged over three trials of 4.85°, while RFSs had a worst case error of 3.77° and a MAE of 1.25° averaged over all five RFSs used. There was no clear correlation between measurement error and speed. Overall, the new glove design proved to accurately measure joint angles. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-fde6e3b489344575b54a667323a7f217 |
| institution | Kabale University |
| issn | 1424-8220 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-01-01 |
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| spelling | doaj-art-fde6e3b489344575b54a667323a7f2172025-01-24T13:48:40ZengMDPI AGSensors1424-82202025-01-0125236710.3390/s25020367The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist TrackingOlivia Hosie0Mats Isaksson1John McCormick2Oren Tirosh3Chrys Hensman4School of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AustraliaSchool of Engineering, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AustraliaCentre for Transformative Media Technologies, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AustraliaSchool of Health and Biomedical Sciences, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology, Melbourne, VIC 3000, AustraliaDivision of Robotics, Swinburne University of Technology, Hawthorn, VIC 3122, AustraliaWearable motion capture gloves enable the precise analysis of hand and finger movements for a variety of uses, including robotic surgery, rehabilitation, and most commonly, virtual augmentation. However, many motion capture gloves restrict natural hand movement with a closed-palm design, including fabric over the palm and fingers. In order to alleviate slippage, improve comfort, reduce sizing issues, and eliminate movement restrictions, this paper presents a new low-cost data glove with an innovative open-palm and finger-free design. The new design improves usability and overall functionality by addressing the limitations of traditional closed-palm designs. It is especially beneficial in capturing movements in fields such as physical therapy and robotic surgery. The new glove incorporates resistive flex sensors (RFSs) at each finger and an inertial measurement unit (IMU) at the wrist joint to measure wrist flexion, extension, ulnar and radial deviation, and rotation. Initially the sensors were tested individually for drift, synchronisation delays, and linearity. The results show a drift of 6.60°/h in the IMU and no drift in the RFSs. There was a 0.06 s delay in the data captured by the IMU compared to the RFSs. The glove’s performance was tested with a collaborate robot testing setup. In static conditions, it was found that the IMU had a worst case error across three trials of 7.01° and a mean absolute error (MAE) averaged over three trials of 4.85°, while RFSs had a worst case error of 3.77° and a MAE of 1.25° averaged over all five RFSs used. There was no clear correlation between measurement error and speed. Overall, the new glove design proved to accurately measure joint angles.https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/2/367data gloveinertial measurement unit (IMU)open-palm designresistive flex sensor (RFS)wearable technology |
| spellingShingle | Olivia Hosie Mats Isaksson John McCormick Oren Tirosh Chrys Hensman The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking Sensors data glove inertial measurement unit (IMU) open-palm design resistive flex sensor (RFS) wearable technology |
| title | The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking |
| title_full | The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking |
| title_fullStr | The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking |
| title_full_unstemmed | The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking |
| title_short | The Design and Validation of an Open-Palm Data Glove for Precision Finger and Wrist Tracking |
| title_sort | design and validation of an open palm data glove for precision finger and wrist tracking |
| topic | data glove inertial measurement unit (IMU) open-palm design resistive flex sensor (RFS) wearable technology |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/25/2/367 |
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