Quantifying differences between five fingers in speed-accuracy tradeoff for force control tasks

The differences of force control capability among individual fingers have been studied in a wide range of contexts. However, the quantitative metric in term of the speed-accuracy tradeoff (SAT) between five fingers has not been systematically investigated. In this paper, we aim to explore this question by measuring SAT of each finger in a precision force control task. During the experiment, participants pressed a force sensor using one of the five fingers of the right hand in an immersive scene. They were instructed to maintain a target force with an expected tolerance within an allowable response time in each trial. The performance of the SAT for each finger was measured under different index of difficulty (ID). The experimental data showed that the SAT characteristic of individual fingers was significantly different. The quantifiable differences of the index of performance (IP) among individual fingers were obtained, which may provide a guideline for design of manipulation products or tasks requiring fast and accurate force control using different fingers.