Tactile perception plays an important role in activities of daily living, and it can be impaired in individuals with certain medical conditions. The most common tools used to assess tactile sensation, the Semmes-Weinstein monofilaments and the 128 Hz tuning fork, have poor repeatability and resolution. Long term, we aim to provide a repeatable, high-resolution testing platform that can be used to assess vibrotactile perception through smartphones without the need for an experimenter to be present to conduct the test. We present a smartphone-based vibration perception measurement platform and compare its performance to measurements from standard monofilament and tuning fork tests. We conducted a user study with 36 healthy adults in which we tested each tool on the hand, wrist, and foot, to assess how well our smartphone-based vibration perception thresholds (VPTs) detect known trends obtained from standard tests. The smartphone platform detected statistically significant changes in VPT between the index finger and foot and also between the feet of younger adults and older adults. Our smartphone-based VPT had a moderate correlation to tuning fork-based VPT. Our overarching objective is to develop an accessible smartphone-based platform that can eventually be used to measure disease progression and regression.

翻译：触觉感知在日常生活活动中起着重要作用，且可能因某些疾病而受损。最常用的触觉感知评估工具——Semmes-Weinstein单丝和128 Hz音叉——存在重复性差和分辨率低的问题。长远目标是提供一种可重复、高分辨率的测试平台，通过智能手机评估振动触觉感知，无需实验员在场操作。本文提出一种基于智能手机的振动感知测量平台，并将其性能与标准单丝和音叉测试的测量结果进行比较。我们对36名健康成年人开展用户研究，在手掌、手腕和足部各部位测试每种工具，以评估基于智能手机的振动感知阈值（VPT）能否有效检测标准测试中已知的变化趋势。智能手机平台检测到食指与足部之间、以及年轻成人与老年成人足部之间的VPT存在统计显著差异。基于智能手机的VPT与基于音叉的VPT呈中等相关性。我们的总体目标是开发一种可访问的智能手机平台，最终用于测量疾病的进展与消退。