Feasibility of Smartphone Vibrations as a Sensory Diagnostic Tool

Abstract

Traditionally, clinicians use tuning forks as a binary measure to assess vibrotactile sensory perception. This approach has low measurement resolution, and the vibrations are highly variable. Therefore, we propose using vibrations from a smartphone to deliver a consistent and precise sensory test. First, we demonstrate that a smartphone has more consistent vibrations compared to a tuning fork. Then we develop an app and conduct a validation study to show that the smartphone can precisely measure a user's absolute threshold. This finding motivates future work to use smartphones to assess vibrotactile perception, allowing for increased monitoring and widespread accessibility.