Reach Out and Touch the World! 
 Run your hand quickly over a new $5 bill and you will feel a patch with a raised texture.
That’s the work of Dr. Susan Lederman. The Queen’s University neuroscientist designed and evaluated the tactile feature and code so that the visually impaired can tell one denomination from another in the new Canadian banknote series. Someone can master the code in only a few minutes.
 “I’m very interested in how people learn about the world through their hands,” explains Dr. Lederman. Over the years, her fundamental scientific research has revealed a great deal about haptic sensing or “touching.” She is also very interested in applying her scientific findings to solving real-world problems, such as designing sensory aids and systems for the blind and for autonomous and teleoperated robots that can feel. Another interest of Dr. Lederman is “force-feedback” systems that can be used in e-commerce, virtual prototyping, and virtual surgical training.
The list of possibilities is endless. It may become possible, for example,
for a customer to visit an on-line retailer’s Web site to feel,
as well as see, an item of clothing before placing an order. A CAD designer
who can evaluate a virtual prototype by touch, not just by sight, may
be able to avoid costly errors during the manufacturing process. Similarly,
surgical instruments equipped with force sensors that deliver precise
“tactile” information may allow minimally invasive surgeons
to feel as though they are actually touching the tissue directly.
“Solving such problems is enormously challenging and complicated, but it has enormous potential,” Dr. Lederman says.
Contact:
Dr. Susan Lederman
Tel.: (613) 533-2878
E-mail: lederman@psyc.queensu.ca
Web site: http://psyc.queensu.ca/faculty/lederman/lederman.html
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