Micro-vibration array using SMA actuators for the screening of diabetes

Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic diseases which causes high blood sugar to a person, due to the functional problems of the pancreas or the metabolism. For a person with diabetes, glucose would not be used properly in the metabolic system, and cause health problems, such as polyphagia, polyuria and polydipsia, since glucose is the main source of energy for the body cells. Symptoms of untreated diabetes would be damaged by the high blood sugar in vessels, and this starts to destroy capillary vessels to lower the sensitivity of tactile sensations, then effects to various organs and nerve systems. The authors pay attention to the decline of the sensitivity of tactile sensations associated with diabetes, and develop a non-destructive screening method of the level of diabetes using a novel micro-vibration actuator that employs a shape-memory alloy wire. The actuators are arranged in an array, and various tactile stimuli are generated by just controlling the driving current signals. The tactile stimuli are presented to symptom's, index and middle fingers., and he/she responds to the stimuli by answering how they are perceived. We made an experiment in a medical clinic., and examined the relation between the Hb Al C values and tactile stimuli.