Assessment of fabric comfort based on finger sensitivity

Assessment of fabric tactile comfort by humans is subjected to many influencing factors including finger sensitivity of the assessors. In previous research, a group of panel members with finger sensitivity between 0.60 to 1.80 mm discrimination performance were selected to perform a fabric handle measurement. A tool called JVP Domes was employed for the measurement of finger sensitivity. In this work, we aim to analyze the influence of the range of finger sensitivity towards the fabric handle assessment. Three groups of assessors based on their finger sensitivity were formed i.e. 0.60-1.00, 1.01-1.20, and 1.21-1.50 mm, in order to investigate the consistency of the results for the measurement of smoothness, softness and warmth attributes. No significant differences were found between the scores from the three groups. This proves that sensitivity up to 1.50 mm is acceptable for assessors. We propose that the selection of panel members based on finger sensitivity is the best way to select people for tactile related assessment, as opposed to other methods