Manipulabilities of the Index Finger and Thumb in Three Tip-Pinch Postures

Tip-pinch, in which the tips of the index finger and thumb pick up and hold a very fine object, plays an important role in the function of the hand. The objective of this study was to investigate how human subjects affect manipulabilities of the tips of the index finger and thumb within the flexion/extension plane of the finger in three different tip-pinch postures. The index finger and thumb of twenty male subjects, were modeled as linkages, based on measurement results obtained using two three-dimensional position measurement devices. The manipulabilities of the index finger and thumb were investigated in three tip-pinch postures, using three criteria indicating the form and posture of the manipulability ellipse of the linkage model. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05, ANOVA) in each criterion of each digit across the subjects, except for two criteria of the thumb. The manipulabilities of the index finger and thumb were separately similar across all subjects in tip-pinch postures. It was found that the manipulability for the cooperation of the index finger and thumb of all the subjects in tip-pinch depended on the posture of the index finger, but not on the posture of the thumb. In two-dimensional tip-pinch, it was possible that the index finger worked actively while the thumb worked passively to support the manipulation of the index finger.