  Tactile sensing is a essential for skilled manipulation and object
perception, but existing devices are unable to capture mechanical signals in
the full gamut of regimes that are important for human touch sensing, and are
unable to emulate the sensing abilities of the human hand. Recent research
reveals that human touch sensing relies on the transmission of mechanical waves
throughout tissues of the hand. This provides the hand with remarkable
abilities to remotely capture distributed vibration signatures of touch
contact. Little engineering attention has been given to important sensory
system. Here, we present a wearable device inspired by the anatomy and function
of the hand and by human sensory abilities. The device is based on a 126
channel sensor array capable of capturing high resolution tactile signals
during natural manual activities. It employs a network of miniature three-axis
sensors mounted on a flexible circuit whose geometry and topology were designed
match the anatomy of the hand, permitting data capture during natural
interactions, while minimizing artifacts. Each sensor possesses a frequency
bandwidth matching the human tactile frequency range. Data is acquired in real
time via a custom FPGA and an I$^2$C network. We also present physiologically
informed signal processing methods for reconstructing whole hand tactile
signals using data from this system. We report experiments that demonstrate the
ability of this system to accurately capture remotely produced whole hand
tactile signals during manual interactions.
