Eigenvectors of the inertia tensor and perceiving the orientation of a hand-held object by dynamic touch

Subjects wielded an object, hidden from view, and reported the orientation in which the object was positioned in the hand. The object consisted of a stem with two branches forming a V attached perpendicularly to the stem’s distal end. The branches were differentially weighted so that the same spatial orientation of the object was associated with different orientations of its principal (symmetry) axes or eigenvectors. Perceived orientation was found to be dependent on the eigenvectors of the object’s inertia tensor, computed about the point of rotation in the wrist, rather than on its spatial orientation. The results underscore the significance of the inertia tensor to understanding the perception of spatial properties by dynamic touch.