Arturo S. García

Affective touch desempeña un papel fundamental en la homeostasis física y el bienestar social, y se diferencia del tacto discriminativo por su conexión intrínseca con los sistemas neurobiológicos de recompensa y regulación emocional. Este mecanismo actúa como amortiguador del estrés al atenuar la reactividad fisiológica y promover estados de seguridad psicológica. Aunque tradicionalmente se ha asociado con la estimulación de la piel con vello, investigaciones recientes sugieren que las interfaces hápticas también pueden modular la valencia y la activación arousal del usuario. Dentro de este marco, el experimento propuesto estudia los estímulos generados por un sistema de retroalimentación vibrotáctil mediante guantes hápticos para identificar qué parámetros físicos específicos (intensidad, duración y zona anatómica) provocan respuestas emocionales positivas y modulan el estado afectivo del usuario. En lugar de evaluar predisposiciones estables, el presente estudio investiga la reactividad inmediata (ansiedad de estado) ante estos estímulos vibrotáctiles mediante cuestionarios basados en el afecto para las dimensiones de valencia (agrado-desagrado) y arousal (activación-calma). La configuración de parámetros resultante debe entenderse como un paso preliminar que puede servir posteriormente de base para el diseño y el desarrollo de sistemas hápticos más complejos e inmersivos.

The seemingly endless expanse of the sky might suggest that it could support a large volume of aerial traffic with minimal risk of collisions. However, mid-air collisions do occur and are a significant concern for aviation safety. Pilots are trained in scanning the sky for other aircraft and maneuvering to avoid such accidents, which is known as the basic see-and-avoid principle. While this method has proven effective, it is not infallible because human vision has limitations, and pilot performance can be affected by fatigue or distraction. Despite progress in electronic conspicuity (EC) systems, which effectively increases the visibility of aircraft to other airspace users, their utility as collision avoidance systems remains limited. This is because they are recommended but not mandatory in uncontrolled airspace, where most mid-air accidents occur, so other aircraft may not mount a compatible device or have it inactive. In addition, their use carries some risks, such as causing pilots to over-focus on them. In response to these concerns, this paper presents evidence on the utility of using an optical flow-based obstacle detection system that can complement the pilot and electronic visibility in collision avoidance, but that, unlike pilots, neither gets tired like the pilot does nor depends on whether other aircraft have mounted devices, such as EC devices. The current investigation demonstrates that the proposed optical flow-based obstacle detection system meets or exceeds the critical minimum time required for pilots to detect and react to flying obstacles (12.5 s) using a mid-air collision simulator in various test environments.

The seemingly endless expanse of the sky might suggest that it could support a large volume of aerial traffic with minimal risk of collisions. However, mid-air collisions do occur and are a significant concern for aviation safety. Pilots are trained in scanning the sky for other aircraft and maneuvering to avoid such accidents, which is known as the basic see-and-avoid principle. While this method has proven effective, it is not infallible because human vision has limitations, and pilot performance can be affected by fatigue or distraction. Despite progress in electronic conspicuity (EC) systems, which effectively increases visibility of aircraft to other airspace users, their utility as collision avoidance systems remains limited. This is because they are recommended but not mandatory in uncontrolled airspace, where most mid-air accidents occur, so other aircraft may not mount a compatible device or have it inactive. Besides, their use carries some risks, such as over-focusing on them. In response to these concerns, this paper presents evidence on the utility of using an optical flow-based obstacle detection system that can complement the pilot and electronic visibility in collision avoidance, but that, contrary to them, neither gets tired as the pilot nor depends on what other aircraft mount, as with EC devices. The current investigation demonstrates that the proposed optical flow-based obstacle detection system meets or exceeds the critical minimum time required for pilots to detect and react to flying obstacles using a mid-air collision simulator in various test environments.