Discomfort Perception on Human Skin among Different Gender During Friction Contact

The discomfort perceptions of human volar forearm skin among different gender during friction testing are studied by biofeedback of physiological and psychological responses. A UMT-Ⅱ tribometer is used to measure friction coefficient of the forearm skin under different normal forces of 0.2 and 1 N, and corresponding physiological signals: skin temperature, conductance and EEG are assessed quantitatively by using a NeXus-10 instrument. The psychological responses are characterized qualitatively according to the volunteers' sensations of pain, drag and heat. Results show that the skin frictional coefficient exhibits no significant differences among different gender. The skin temperature and conductance of female are higher than those of male, however, the differences of skin temperature and conductance at start and end of the test show no significant differences among different gender respectively. The amplitude of EEG and number of high peak amplitude of female are greater than those of male, correspondingly, the psychological responses of discomfort sensations of female are stronger than those of male during friction testing. The discomfort sensations of all subjects gradually intensify with increasing friction time and normal force.