A British study entitled “Exploring Tactile Perception for Object Localization in Granular Media: A Human and Robotic Study”, relayed by the media The Debrief, highlights the existence of a seventh sense. It would be the remote touchor “remote touch”, an ability that allows humans to perceive objects without direct contact.
Researchers from Queen Mary University and University College London have shed light on a unique human faculty previously thought to be unique to the animal kingdom. Indeed, shorebirds, such as sandpipers and plovers, have an internal form of “touch at a distance” allowing them to protect themselves from predators hidden in invisible areas, such as the sand of their natural habitat. Thanks to this sensitivity, they detect buried objects by interpreting mechanical signals transmitted by the environment.
The scientists conducted two separate experiments: one with humans and one with robots. The first tested the sensitivity of human fingertips to tactile signals from buried objects. The second, carried out with a robotic arm equipped with tactile sensors, used a machine learning model to detect the presence of objects.
Man surpasses machine
The study shows that humans may possess a sand-sensing ability similar to that of shorebirds. Participants were able to spot a cube hidden under the sand without even touching it, revealing that human hands are much more sensitive than previously thought. Our ability to perceive hidden objects seems much more developed than we might imagine. A revelation all the more surprising given that humans outperformed robots by around 30% during experiments. (70.7% accuracy for humans, 40% for machines).
“What makes this research particularly exciting is how human and robotics studies have fed into each otherexplains Lorenzo Jamone, associate professor of robotics and artificial intelligence at University College London. Human experiences guided the robot’s learning method, and the robot’s performance offered new perspectives for interpreting human data.
“This is a great example of how psychology, robotics and artificial intelligence can collaborate, demonstrating that a multidisciplinary approach can spark both fundamental discoveries and technological innovations”he concludes.
For Zhengqi Chen, a doctoral student at the Advanced Robotics Lab at Queen Mary University of London, this discovery offers new perspectives for designing assistive tools and technologies capable of extending human tactile perception. More broadly, the study could make it possible to develop new touch-based systems making the exploration of hidden or dangerous environments safer and more efficient.
