May the force be with you: exploring force discrimination in chimpanzees using the force-feedback device.

While force-feedback devices have been developed in areas such as virtual reality, there have been very few comparative cognitive studies in nonhuman animals using these devices. In addition, although cross-modal perception between vision and touch has been actively studied in nonhuman primates for several decades, there have been no studies of their active haptic perception. In this study, we attempted to train force discrimination in chimpanzees using a force-feedback device modified from a trackball.

High-resolution 3-D shape integration of dentition and face measured by new laser scanner.

Face and dentition were measured using a high-resolution three-dimensional laser scanner to circumvent problems of radiation exposure and metal-streak artifacts associated with X-ray computed tomography. The resulting range data were integrated in order to visualize the dentition relative to the face. The acquisition interval for dentition by laser scanner was 0.